Baptist De Pape: The Power of the Heart
During our conversation, Baptist de Pape tells several stories and anecdotes of his five year quest around the world as he interviewed and filmed the co-creators. Visiting Maya Angelou in her home, he expresses how grateful he was that she was able to be a part of this project and shares a memorable experience of a powerful quote that begins the movie. When asked to say something about the heart, she said, “My name is Maya Angelou, and I believe that the heart is the most forceful, impactful element in our lives. I believe that the heart helps us to understand who we are, where we are and how we are.”
In Native American tribes, when they say something that is very important, they first say their name. In doing so, they are saying this is what I think, and this is who I am. This is what I stand for. That’s what Maya did when she said her name first.
As I inquired about his favorite part of the movie or book, Baptist de Pape acknowledges that every time he watches it, he sees something different. However, Mark Nepo’s interview for the movie because of his experience with cancer was especially poignant. In addition, the genocide story shared by Immaculée Ilibagiza was particularly moving as she was able to see the beauty and the lessons in that dark period of her life. Many individuals in the movie are faced with challenges and setbacks, but they are not attacking the darkness. Instead, they choose to amplify the Light – become more and become better and to transform.
Asking Baptist de Pape how filming this movie and writing the book has changed his life, he replied, “It helped me to really trust the heart. When I started this project, I didn’t know anything about the heart, and I didn’t know anything about film production. It was a big challenge for me.”
Indicating he didn’t have the knowledge or the infrastructure initially about film production, he was forced to go with his heart’s intuition because he couldn’t do it any other way. Providing this analogy, he states, “I’ve learned if you are on a boat on the river, then your mind can only see the next bend, the next turn on the river, but your heart can see the whole river from source to sea.” He continues by saying, “What I’ve learned is to experiment with that because deep inside we all know it, but we have to experiment with that. Why do we have to experiment with that? Because that’s the only way we will really start to trust the heart and start to live from that place.”
