Two years ago I met John Antonelli, an accomplished documentary filmmaker and founder of The Mill Valley Film Group. John and his company have produced award-winning films about cultural icons like Jack Kerouac and Sam Cooke that have played at Sundance Film Festival and on PBS American Masters. He read The Art of Sexual Healing countless times and attended Skydancing Tantra Workshops and that all lead to his desire to make a documentary about my life and work.
Within hours of our meeting, John and his crew were shooting beautiful scenes inside one of my advanced trainings in California. Soon after, he and his cinematographer tracked me down in Bali and charmed me into spending a week with them, We traveled around the island filming interactions between me and many of my dear friends as we practiced yoga and massage, enjoyed Balinese arts, food, music and architecture, and talked about the infinite ways that Skydancing tantra and sexual ecstacy can change the world.
John is a visionary. He has understood that tantra holds the secrets that can bring harmony between men and women regardless of race, religion, age or sexual preferences. He and I believe it is high time that we spread this powerful message through a passionately spiritual film that will appeal to the uninitiated as well as those steeped in tantric practice like yourselves.
John’s team has edited together a short sample of the proposed film which you can see here on the Kickstarter website. His plan is to raise enough money here in this forum from friends, students and Skydancing followers to carry the project forward to show some more of the sacred depth and sexual intimacy that will be in the final film. At that stage, John plans to forge a deal with a large distributor toprovide funding to complete the film and help to reach a global audience.
We want the film to play in theaters as well as online or on cable. If you saw the film “Awakening” about Yogananda, you’ll know what the distribution model is like. Film Festivals, then theaters, then Netflix or HBO or other such companies.
We all know how important this work about Tantra, especially Skydancing Tantra, is. Not just my lifelong commitment, but for the centuries that it has been such an important part of eastern mysticism. John thinks the time is perfectly ripe for this message about the merging of the divine and ecstatic dimension of sexuality. To reach a vast international audience we believe that a true global awakening will occur when we all can bow to each other and say: “I honor you as an aspect of myself.” We want this film to be a major catalyst in that explosive awareness.
So please take a look at the sample and the message and at John’s previous work. We are looking for our community to come together and infuse this project with their support in any form – a few dollars or a few thousand dollars, a chant, a prayer, a like or a share. Just let us know you are behind the idea and that you feel that the time is here for Skydancing Tantra to go viral and find the audience that has, for so long, been waiting to discover a new way of being and connecting with each other ecstatically in friendship, beauty, fun, and love. Together we will create a current so strong that it will wash away any resistance to the expansive awareness that has been been at the core of tantra for centuries.
Blessings,
Margot
JOHN ANTONELLI, DIRECTOR/PRODUCER
For 30 years, John Antonelli and his company The Mill Valley Film Group have been producing award-winning documentary and educational projects for theatrical distribution, cable TV, PBS, syndication, and for an impressive list of corporate clients.
John’s notable projects include:
Sam Cooke: Crossing Over was funded by ITVS and premiered on PBS’s American Masters in 2010. The series garnered an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Nonfiction Series.
The Roots of ‘Ulu, with funding from Pacific Islanders in Communications. The film premiered at Mill Valley Film Festival and won the Audience Award for Best Short Film at Hawaii International Film Festival. It was broadcast on PBS World in 2017.
Unfair Game: The Politics of Poaching has shown from Johannesburg to Nevada City. The film explores the ongoing conflict between wildlife conservationists, who strive to protect natural resources, and the indigenous people who have survived on and protected those resources for centuries.
Sea Change, narrated by Danny Glover, chronicles the inspiring work of Ikal Angelei, a native of Lake Turkana, the world’s largest desert lake, located in Northern Kenya. Ikal has taken on a years long battle with the governments of Ethiopia, China and Kenya to curtail their efforts to dam the Omo River, the origin of the lake’s vital water supply. Half a million indigenous people rely on the river and lake as their primary food source.
The New Environmentalists, a half hour program narrated by Robert Redford, features stories of grassroots activists from around the world. The program airs on PBS and The Sundance Channel and has screened at film festivals from Barcelona to New Zealand.
Antonelli is a producer, writer and editor on the series. The program has won four regional Emmy Awards, and is in its 15th year.
Antonelli’s feature length film, Kerouac: King of the Beats has played theatrically in every major city in the U.S. and Canada, and was distributed theatrically by October Films. It was remastered on HD Blu Ray by Kultur International Films, as well as on iTunes and Netflix, and broadcast to critical acclaim on the Arts & Entertainment Network, PBS, The Learning Channel and in most major European markets. The film was nominated for best feature length documentary at the Sundance Film Festival and was awarded a Blue Ribbon from the American Film Festival for Best Feature Length Film, as well as the award for Best Film from Northern California at the National Educational Film Festival. Antonelli produced, directed and wrote.
Eli is an Emmy Award winning film editor with a unique storytelling ability. Her extensive experience reaches into the feature film, documentary, non-fiction broadcast, and commercial realms. Eli won an Emmy for her work on My Flesh and Blood for HBO Films, which also won an Emmy for Best Documentary, and the Audience Award and Best Director Prizes at Sundance Film Festival. In 2015, Eli edited The Nine, a non fiction feature by acclaimed photographer Katy Grannan, and Saving Eden, a documentary by Oscar winning director Bill Couturie. Eli also edited the feature films, And Then Came Lola, a comedy, and Mrs. Menendez a feature length documentary for A&E Films. Other non-fiction television credits include Sam Cooke: Crossing Over for PBS’ American Masters, Amelia Earhart and The Boston Strangler for National Geographic, True Life for MTV, Sports Wives for A&E, and Rocket Dogs for Animal Planet.
FABIAN AGURRIE, DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Fabián is a Mexican documentary cinematographer interested in filmmaking as an instrument for social and environmental impact. He is inspired by the story of life on Earth and by our relationship to the creatures with which we share it, as we have over millennia. He is co-founder of The Understory, a motion picture company based near the redwoods of Northern California whose work has been featured and distributed by the New York Times and Vox.
JEFF SPRINGER, DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Jeff Springer is an Emmy nominated documentary filmmaker and freelance cinematographer who has worked with PBS, NBC, Al Jazeera, Topic, the Sundance Channel, Sony Pictures, Lucasfilm, Mother Jones, as well as brands such as Nike and Microsoft. His first feature documentary went to over 200 film festivals, won 37 awards for Best Documentary, and is rated 96% on Rotten Tomatoes. As a cinematographer he has shot countless documentaries and branded videos, using his strong background in editing to not just create beautiful images, but to also build compelling visual stories. His latest feature documentary Rodents of Unusual Size, about giant swamp rats invading coastal Louisiana, was funded by PBS, was named one of the top 10 best reviewed movies of 2019 (so far) by Rotten Tomatoes, and was broadcast nationally on Independent Lens. He has lived in Afghanistan, Russia, London, Berlin, Los Angeles, and now splits his time between New York and San Francisco.
MAYA PISCIOTTO, SECOND CAMERA/SOUND RECORDIST
Maya Pisciotto is an editor, filmmaker, vocalist and musician. She caught the story bug as a child listening to her father’s stories around the campfire and hasn’t been able to shake it since. She co-founded The Understory with Fabián to tell artful stories that ignite empathy and build community.
KYLEE ACEVEDO, ASSISTANT EDITOR/ASSOCIATE PRODUCER
Kylee Acevedo is an editor and graphic designer who began working as an intern with Mill Valley Film Group. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications Media from Fitchburg State University. She now resides in Berkeley, California, where she is currently working as assistant editor on Mill Valley Film Group’s The New Environmentalists, an Emmy award-winning series documenting grassroots environmental activism around the world.
ABOUT MARGOT ANAND
Margot Anand, the world’s leading authority on Tantra, is an internationally acclaimed author, public speaker, teacher and seminar leader. Her best-selling books—The Art of Sexual Ecstasy, The Art of Sexual Magic, The Art of Everyday Ecstasy, Sexual Ecstasy: The Art of Orgasm, The Sexual Ecstasy Workbook and her latest book, Love, Sex, and Awakening — have sold more than a million copies worldwide. Her teaching style is a rare synthesis of French erotic humor, American pragmatism, and Indian mysticism. She is particularly appreciated for her ability to bring healing, lightness, fun, and passion to the workshop atmosphere.
Throughout the past two decades, Margot Anand has developed and taught the Love and Ecstasy Training®, a method of healing and enhancing sexuality to its ultimate potential: ecstasy. She is also the founder of the SkyDancing® Tantra Institute, the most complete path to sexual bliss for western lovers.
A native of France, Margot received her degree from Sorbonne University in Paris. She has extensive training in Gestalt therapy, Hindu and Buddhist Tantra (having studied with several spiritual masters including the renowned mystic Osho in India). Her other fields of expertise include bioenergetics, massage, meditation, Arica and Integral yoga. Margot is also an accomplished painter and singer.
The primary risk with the project is in finding the approach to presenting Margot’s story to those who aren’t familiar with her work or with tantric sex without alienating them. There is a combination of lack of awareness and major misconceptions about tantra that we have to overcome to reach an audience that otherwise might not be interested in the topic.
On the plus side of that equation, we are dealing with millions of people who have read Margot’s books or otherwise been exposed to tantric sex.
We do feel strongly that the key to enticing those viewers who aren’t aware of tantra is that most everyone is interested in enhancing their sex life. Put simply, tantra is a way of combining sexual practices with many of the mind/body exercises of yoga and meditation that so many westerners have embraced.
With the right touch and tone, we will be able to reach those potential novices to a new way of approaching sexual intimacy.
Another potential obstacle is that Margot’s pace of life is slowing down somewhat. She is currently recovering from knee replacement surgery. But, her coping with aging adds another dimension to the richness of the story and the added surprise for the audience of where the narrative will ultimately land.