Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru
Christopher Buck: We were wondering if during the film how tough it was not to exactly that, get wrapped up in the energy and experience your own breakthroughs or if your own breakthroughs are trying to bubble up while you’re trying to film the movie. I would have thought that would’ve been a real difficult and challenging process.
Joe Berlinger: Yeah, absolutely. We constantly were battling that impulse to go to that place where you can have reflective moments. But, luckily, there was enough opportunity for us to have reflective moments and have some breakthroughs while we were making the film. But, we had to be on guard that we weren’t doing that at the expense of the quality of the film. Some of my crew came in very cynical about the event and came out really changed on the other end. I have a very experienced crew of collaborators that I’ve taken around the world and plopped into all sorts of volatile situations. And by and large, they’re a cynical crowd who have seen everything. And so, the fact that my crew also went on a journey of transformation by making the film was a good sign of social proof as well as rewarding for me to be able to share that experience with my crew.
Christopher Buck: That’s part of the testament to Tony Robbins’s process. Now, you see how he works his magic, and it almost seems like magic because he really connects on a deep level and can pull these things out, but he’s very intuitive. But, you wonder, does he run into situations where he’s got levels of the pain of his audience that he can’t make that breakthrough or he can’t reach because it’s so powerful?
Joe Berlinger: I’ve never actually seen him fail to transform somebody into the two events that I was at. Look, I’m not saying that everybody who goes there, 100 percent has an amazing experience, and you see, I didn’t speak to every person.
So, I’m sure there are people there who might not think of the experience the way I do, but there weren’t a lot of them that I encountered. I felt like the vast majority of people that I talked to, encountered were having the same kind of experience that I was having. And those interventions, he flies without a net, and it’s pretty amazing how he’s able to reach people in that short amount of time.
Christopher Buck: It was very remarkable to watch. I’m sure there were more interventions that you didn’t use, but the ones you picked to feature in the film were extraordinarily powerful. We’re very grateful to be able to help promote it and your participation with the Illuminate Film Festival in June. When will the general public be able to experience the movie, besides the film festival?
Joe Berlinger: It’s a Netflix documentary. So, it is exclusively available on Netflix starting July 15th.
Christopher Buck: Why is Netflix the right home for this film?
Joe Berlinger: I think this is a rich, emotionally complex, very personal film – personal for me making it, and personal for those who get something out of it. And I think the SVOD platform where you can just consume it when you want it, where you want it and how you want it makes Netflix an ideal partner … I just felt like those who really connect to this film will want to luxuriate over it – watching it more than once and going to specific sections of the film that touched them to think about aspects of their own life.
That kind of non-linear control of a viewing experience is quintessential Netflix. Also, Netflix has an ever-increasing worldwide reach, and Tony Robbins is a worldwide phenomenon. I think this is a great way to reach, at the first level, his legion of fans worldwide, but then I hope it brings in people who are not familiar with Tony Robbins who might not have otherwise of had a chance to see the film.
