Ram Dass, Going Home

Ram Dass, Going Home, 2017, USA, Derek Peck, 32 mins.

Director Derek Peck hosts two screenings of his poignant and insightful short film Ram Dass, Going Home. A timely examination of his life learning and awareness, the film is a nuanced meditation on life, death, and the soul’s journey home. Visiting the legendary American writer and spiritual teacher at his home in Maui, we find him surrounded by a natural soundscape of birds and ocean waves. Now in his mid-80s, Ram Dass discusses major milestones in his journey, from early psychedelic drug use to his spiritual education on visits to India, to a 1997 stroke that was “an act of grace” because it forced him inward. Approaching death, he is still communicating with his own guru and inspiration, Maharaji. “Truth, love, consciousness, that’s what God is to me. It’s just consciousness.” Death, he observes, “is another step towards home.”

The screenings are followed by a conversation with the filmmaker.

“Most of what we encounter are thoughts. I project not only the names but values. So that’s around judging everything. Without these projections I can see everything.” —Ram Dass

Official Selection Mill Valley Film Festival

Official Selection Telluride Mountain Film Festival

About the Speaker

Derek Peck is a California- and Brooklyn-based filmmaker who has made several documentary portraits of notable cultural personalities, including Marina Abramović and Peter Beard, all of which have been known for the intimacy he achieves with his subjects.