SoulPancake

[SP EXCLUSIVE]

What is God? That's the question that Peter Rodger has asked all in his path—from Ringo Starr to David Copperfield, from Princess Michael of Kent to Zen masters, from gun-toting Texas fundamentalists to Kashmir extremists—in his soon-to-be-released film, Oh My God.

Frustrated by a globally prevailing schoolyard mentality of religion, a concept he summarizes as “My God is better than your God,” commercial filmmaker Rodger—whose father George was a founding member of the Magnum Photography collective—ditched the cosmetics and Toyota ad contracts, grabbed two HD cameras, and hit the road, spending two-and-a-half years filming across 23 countries to complete this feature-length documentary, which explores people’s diverse opinions and perceptions of God.

Along the way, Peter lost all of his equipment in Morocco, was turned back at Palestinian and Israeli checkpoints in the Holy Land, and conducted interviews from behind the barrels of machine guns. Still, Oh My God ultimately uncovered a less visceral but more profound truth for Rodger, a truth that is delicately but deftly realized in the film’s final cut: that the world, for all of its publicized and glorified nastiness, is ultimately a surging sea of humanity and that the beauty of religion and spirituality lies in its simplicity. Those who embrace their religions with honesty, kindness, and a larger respect for the world in which we live are the truly faithful.

Rodger sat down with SoulPancake to talk about his film and how he hopes it will help audiences take away a new appreciation of their own beliefs and the beliefs of others.

SP: What has your art, and specifically Oh My God, revealed to you about your personal beliefs?
Rodger: The whole motivation for doing the film was one of frustration. I was frustrated with the childish religious mentalities that seem to have been permeating the world for thousands of years but have really been accentuated since 9/11. I wanted to look at people and ask them what this entity that goes by the name of God meant to them, and hopefully, their answers would push us in the direction of tolerance.

But I have to tell you, the real outcome and response of this was encountering the amazing humanity that actually exists on this planet. It’s only when you get groups of people that are manipulated by those with nefarious agendas who use fear to induce behavior in the name of God that problems start to exist. At the end of the day, I was happy to find a lot of humanity existing on this planet to counter that.

SP: Do you think we need religion?
Rodger: That’s a very intelligent question and one that is not often asked. As a control device, religion has had its place in history. Take Mohammad, for example, who came into a Middle East and North Africa characterized by barbarianism and evil, but as a prophet, preached and gave birth to Islam and a code of practice that really worked, formulating a society of fantastic mathematicians and artists that, unfortunately, in recent years has been hijacked by groups of fanatics. You could say the same for Christianity.

But do we need it now? Wow. I don’t think I’m qualified to answer that question. I think that is up to the individual to answer. We live in times of fear and economic crisis and uncertainty and war and terrorism. Religion gives people something to hold onto, whether that is God or going to a church or a synagogue or a mosque or listening to fantastic music or meditating into a trance-like state.

At the same time, if you are religious, I think you need to understand what your prophets talked about. Understand what the books say and don’t listen to people who use God’s name to politicize or coerce, and by that, I mean fundamentalists, fanatics, and terrorists. Has religion been useful? Yes. Is it still useful? Yes. But do we need religion? I'm not going to answer that question.

SP: Oh My God shows a distinct difference in the conception of God between young and old. Children express the divine in positive terms, while adults conceptualize spirituality as something more trying. Why do you think that is?
Rodger: I think children come out of the womb so pure that they don’t yet have bigotry. They embrace humanity for what it is—a joyous, amazing trip where they fall and learn how to get up again. They embrace everybody. It’s not until we get older and other human beings begin to mold our minds that we start to doubt. As you age, you become jaded. The dreams you had are not realized; you aren’t the person you thought you would be; and the amazing moments of stimulation you had as a child don’t work anymore. So you turn to drugs and alcohol and even religion to try and compensate for that vacuous feeling. We can learn from kids when it comes to the wonderful innate sense that they have not to discriminate.

SP: What does your art tell people about your soul?
Rodger: My films aren’t really about me. I’m just a vehicle for people to travel around the world with and see the things that I saw through my camera lens. It’s not about my spiritual beliefs—it’s about the viewer's. But hold a gun to my head and make me answer the question, and I’d say that my view is, I think life is very simple. Essentially, I think you can boil down all religions (and all of spirituality) into one little pot: Be respectful. Be respectful to neighbors and other people; be respectful to yourself; be as kind as you can, and the world will be a happier place. I hope people come to find tolerance and understanding after watching my film.

SP: What artists have most influenced you?
Rodger: This film was really homage to my education as a photographer from my father George Rodger, who was a photojournalist and a founder of Magnum Photos. I think a lot of the visual aspects of the film were homage to him and photographers like Henri Cartier-Bresson, David (Chim) Seymour, Sebastiäo Salgado. I’m a movie person, and I like the moving image, but my art is homage to those artists, who could tell a story within one frame, and my father, who gave me the gift of learning how to see.

SP: When do you feel most creative?
Rodger: Anytime I am behind the camera or playing the guitar. I’m a filmmaker, and I shot this thing just holding my camera and capturing the most incredible and beautiful traipses of this planet and people’s faces. The spirit of people is, for me, an amazing sense of meditation. I call it sliding: You don’t think about putting your left leg in front of your right; you just go from A to B. When I’m playing guitar, it's the same thing: You just let yourself go, and suddenly your fingers are doing something that you did not know they could. That, to me, is my form of getting off—of really getting into it.

SP: When do you feel happiest?
Rodger: Cuddling my sons and my daughter. Respect for other people. Laughing. Making movies. Reading and learning every day. Taking risks.

SP: If you could ask God one question, what would it be?
Rodger: Wow. God is so universal that I don’t know if there is one singular entity you can direct a question to. But let’s assume there is. What would I ask him? I’d ask him to tell me a joke. I wonder what joke he would tell me. I mean, my film is serious, not a comedy, but I think that humor and laughter are so important, and so many of us take life too seriously. It is very important to laugh.

With all the conceptions of God out there, how can humanity overcome its evils and differences to learn tolerance?

Oh My God hits theaters November 13. The film was written, produced, and directed by Peter Rodger and stars Sir Bob Geldof, Her Royal Highness Princess Michael of Kent, David Copperfield, Seal, Ringo Starr, Hugh Jackman, and a sea of humanity.

:: @CSW