Eight years ago, he had a dream—to highlight the untold stories of everyday heroes around the world. So Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee became a filmmaker. And put that concept of “oneness” on a larger scale. Traveling to dozens of countries producing short films that, while honoring diversity, seek to demonstrate the underlying bonds of humanity.

In this conversation, Emmanuel shares with Paul Van Slambrouck about his creative process, and the peaks and valleys along the journey through his latest film, Elemental, which chronicles three stories across three continents, of people trying to shift our relationship to water.

Paul: I remember the last time we talked, you were sort of in the launching stage of this most recent film project, which I think was a new feature in terms of its length and breadth. Describe that process: what it looked like when you began, and what it looks like now—what it became. What your experience was like.

Emmanuel: When you start a film, of course, you start a film with one idea and where you end up 365 degrees in every different direction from where you started. [laughs] Definitely an interesting experience on many levels.

When we started the film, the premise was to make a film about water. For many reasons. One of those was, through water, you explore so many different facets of our world, whether it be culture, religion or spirituality, ecology or politics. So many things are rooted through water and in water.

We also wanted not to tell a very human story about our relationship to the natural world, our relationship to water, through characters who would form the basis of our film. 

And they were all connected through water in different ways. One, in India, through his work to try to revitalize the Ganges. A women in Northern Alberta whose community was dying from poisoned water as an impact of development in the sand tars region. And an inventor who had found certain patterns in water that he was applying to technological solutions—engineering solutions, kind of biomimicry-based, looking at how water moves and how it flows.



Through these different stories, we’d be able to tell a larger story about, not only our relation to our natural world, our relationship to water, but also these journeys people go on, people who are committed to service. And their very human struggles. The self-doubt. The doubt people put on them. The challenges they go through in their own personal lives, whether it be family problems or money problems or just trying to balance their lives amidst this turmoil.

P: You said it raised some questions that you had to sit with. Can you say more about yourself—what the project’s meant to you? It hasn’t left you yet, but you’re in a different space now.

E: I think that probably for anybody who’s spent a few years of their lives on one thing, it goes through many cycles. There are peaks and valleys. And there’s moments of optimism and moments of despair and frustration and inspiration. I’ve found both of those in this project, both in my own personal life and in this film.



For example, we spent over six weeks in India going from the source of the Ganges to the Sea. From Gangotri Gomukh, the source of the Ganges (it’s glacial waters), all the way to Ganga Sagar, where it meets the Bay of Bengal. It’s about 1600 miles. There, we experienced tremendous pollution all the time along the river. Which was very hard to see. That just takes a toll on you when you start to see that, day-in and day-out. And you just start to think, How could this stop?

The amount of pollution. 
The amount of sewage.
The amount of overuse happening there.

But then you have these moments where you see 200 university students take a pledge that they are going to become stewards of the river, and commit their lives to the service of the river where they live. And they’re doing it with such—not just commitment—but a deep integrity, a deep personal conviction that they rise up to offer. And that’s very inspiring. That gives you hope.

There were so many instances like that on that journey, where you’d see these tremendous challenges. And then immediately after that were these tremendous opportunities.

P: I think we can all understand this—as you rub up close to some of these problems, it takes a certain toll on you in doing it. You see the magnitude, and it’s difficult to remain optimistic at times. What do you do to keep yourself going in the face of that?

E: Good question. [sighs] On a personal level—it was tough, because sometimes you just had to get the job done of making the movie. And if you got too caught up on what you were seeing and then letting that emotionally take a toll on you, you couldn’t be focused. It was hard sometimes. On every level, you’re smelling it. You’re feeling it. You’re tasting it almost. You’re experiencing the characters’ reaction to it. You’re seeing all these things around you. And at the same time, you have to focus on doing your job of making the film.

So it was often after the fact, when you had time. After the shoot was over, when you had a day, or six hours in a car, of downtime. It would just sit with you. And you could reflect on it.

As far as dealing with it long-term, I’ve had a meditation practice for a long time. I started meditating when I was very young. That provides me something to go back to, always. Whether it’s dealing with the stress of just everyday life. Or the tremendous toll of seeing this huge destruction. This ecological destruction. Just having a place to go back to, and finding a space of silence within myself, that has helped.



P: I recall from our previous conversation, being really struck by when you said your films are not intended to provide a prescription for what people should do. So it makes me curious, in terms of your work, how do you think about the impact you’re hoping to have?

E: Through all the films I’ve done, and Elemental as well, it was about asking, “How can we create an experience that, yes, it informs, educates, it’s about these important issues of the day, but beneath that, conveys something deeper?”

Trying to both raise questions on a deep, maybe philosophical or spiritual level (Why are we here? What are we doing? Where are we going?), and convey an experience that is trying to be as authentic as it can. If you can create an authentic experience, then the ripple effect can be tremendous. Because it touches people from where ever they are. And it doesn’t impose an agenda on somebody.

It’s says, “Here’s something. It’s an offering. You take it. How it touches you and what you do with it is really up to you.”

P: I remember you saying that your work is to inspire people to decide what to do. In other words, encourage people to think for themselves what are the right steps to take. It’s kind of a beautiful concept— Very open. Very individual. Do you feel you have a way of knowing with a project whether that is happening? Or do you just do the work, look at it, and kind of trust the process that it will do that?’

E: It’s hard to focus on outcomes when you’re in a creative process sometimes. You want it to do this, you want it to do that— It’s almost a different use of your brain. I prefer the open approach.

I like it when people take something that you’ve created or that you’ve shared—cause all you’re really doing is sharing these stories. You’re taking these people, these places in the world, and you’re presenting them in a certain way. And what people do with them—that to me is what is so lovely. Whether they do nothing but experience it in the moment and it touches them, raises questions for them, or maybe it inspires them to go out and do something that’s physical, with their hands, or get involved in something, or a combination of that, or something—that to me is what makes it alive.



P: This is true of creative projects—if they really are co-created—they take on a life of their own. And in a sense, you’re maybe midwifing something, but it isn’t in the end even solely your project.

E: Oh I completely agree. Film especially is a very co-created process. Yes, you have a director, and there’s certain key roles, but whether it’s documentary or fiction, you have so many people you’re working with. And in a documentary, it’s almost more alive because you’re not telling your characters what to do, you’re following their lives. You’re sharing their stories. So they are a complete ingredient in what makes this come alive.

P: Water is such a fundamental thing. At this point in the project, what have you learned about water that you didn’t know going in?

E: You know, that’s a great question. In some ways, the water is a river. It takes you on a journey. I started with a lot of preconceived ideas of what things were, based on things I’d read in books. Or stats I’d gotten from research papers, from information I’d gathered. And, in some ways, I had to let those go. And be taken on the journey of where the film was going to go.

It was, for me, the metaphor of the river.

[chuckles]

I had started on the river with a lot of ideas, a lot of information. By the end, I think a lot of that had washed out of me.



Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee is a director, producer, musician and composer. Since 2005, his Global Oneness Project, born in 2005, has produced 150 short films while attracting millions of viewers—while offering it all as a no-strings-attached gift. He has been conducting interviews and creating short films ever since. Elemental is currently screening in the United States and across the globe. Emmanuel is also an accomplished bass musician and teacher.