Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru
Interview with Joe Berlinger, Director of Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru
TONY ROBBINS IS AN AMERICAN MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER, PERSONAL FINANCE INSTRUCTOR, AND SELF-HELP AUTHOR. HE BECAME WELL KNOWN FROM HIS INFOMERCIALS AND SELF-HELP BOOKS: UNLIMITED POWER, UNLEASH THE POWER WITHIN AND AWAKEN THE GIANT WITHIN. IN 2007, HE WAS NAMED IN FORBES MAGAZINE’S “CELEBRITY 100” LIST.
Academy Award®-nominated and seven-time Emmy nominated and Peabody and Emmy-winning filmmaker Joe Berlinger has been a leading voice in nonfiction film and television for two 
decades. Berlinger’s films include the landmark documentaries BROTHER’S KEEPER, PARADISE LOST Trilogy, and METALLICA: SOME KIND OF MONSTER, a film that re-defined the rockumentary genre. CRUDE, about oil pollution in the Amazon Rainforest, won 22 human rights, environmental and film festival awards and recently triggered a high-profile First Amendment battle with oil-giant Chevron. Berlinger’s UNDER AFRICAN SKIES about the 25th Anniversary of Paul Simon’s Graceland album was nominated for three Primetime Emmy awards after its 2012 Sundance Film Festival premiere, including Outstanding Nonfiction Special.
He has also received multiple awards from the Directors Guild of America, the National Board of Review and the Independent Spirit Awards.
His latest work, Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru is being featured at the Illuminate Film Festival this June.
OMTimes is proud to share this exclusive interview with Joe Berlinger by OMTimes Publisher Christopher Buck
Christopher Buck: “I Am Not Your Guru” Movie was awesome. Very powerful movie. I’ve seen Tony Robbins in a lot of different things, but that was intense. Where did you get the idea of filming one of Tony’s, intense and powerfully emotional workshops?
Joe Berlinger: Well, I, actually, went to one “Date With Destiny” in 2012 kind of kicking and screaming, not thinking this was for me. And then came out the other end thinking, oh my God, this was so transformational; I have to make a film about it. That’s the short answer. The longer answer is- Tony Robbins, and I met socially in 2012. He happened to be a fan of my Metallica film. I made a film about the band Metallica, called “Metallica: Some Kind of Monster” and that–it’s a film about a band going through therapy. It’s a very unusual film. It’s actually a classic in the rock documentary genre because it kind of turned the whole genre on its head. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the film or not.
