The Global Ethics and Religion Forum
Proudly Announces the
Production of the Documentary Film
Patterns for Peace:
India as a Model for Peace in a Diverse Society
Projected Release: October 2004
We have an extraordinary opportunity before us to make a documentary of the highest quality, under the working title "Patterns for Peace: India as a Model for Peace in a Diverse Society." This documentary will advance the cause of interreligious understanding through a focus on the multi-religious society of India and the heritage of Gandhi, bringing international attention to India's heritage of peace and nonviolence in an extraordinarily diverse society. India has a great deal to offer the world and a responsibility to do so, and this documentary project is an ideal vehicle to work together to bring the rich heritage of India to public awareness.
In the wake of recent tragedies and violence around the world, it is essential that there be open discussion of paths which can lead us into a more peaceful and harmonious future. To move toward such a future, the international community can draw on India’s centuries of experience of diverse communities of Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Jews, Sikhs, and Buddhists living together in peace, and on India’s deep religious and Gandhian heritage of nonviolence. This heritage has already touched the world, inspiring the fight against Apartheid in South Africa and the movement for civil rights in the United States, but it is needed now more than ever, as war and civil strife increasingly threaten our global community.
The film is being shot by two extraordinary young film makers, shooting on location in the states of Gujarat and Rajasthan, and including interviews with Indo-Americans living in California; with Indian religious leaders, activists, and scholars gathering at the Parliament of the World Religions in Barcelona, Spain, and with His Holiness, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. Two outstanding film professionals have enthusiastically volunteered to assist us--producer David Garcia (producer at Universal Studios for 25 years with over 600 films, documentaries, and television episodes to his credit) and Ken O'Donnell (partner in Mark I Productions)--thus insuring the highest technical quality for our production. The Forum’s Executive Director, Dr. Joseph Runzo, has put together an impressive international set of expert advisors, and Associate Director, Dr. Nancy M. Martin, has drawn on her extensive network of contacts in India to insure the highest quality content for the production. The international peace conference occurring in Gujarat at the time of the initial shooting gave us the opportunity to bring together these advisors in one place on location and to interview additional experts from across India and around the world.
Our goal is to produce a compelling, truly informative, and accurate documentary that can be used in schools and universities as well as shown on public television both in the USA and abroad, thus reaching a tremendously wide audience. There are very few outstanding films on interreligious understanding available for classroom use, yet films that are picked up for classroom use receive extremely wide showing. Our film will be ideally poised to fill this need and to promote patterns of peace.