John Raatz and his Visioneering Group have been championing an Enlightened Media longer than just about anyone. Ten years after he promoted some groundbreaking films (described below) he found the What the BLEEP filmmakers and convinced them to bring him on board to promote the film. The filmmakers were 4 months into their self distribution and realized they needed a real professional to bust into the next level. Which with John Raatz and David Langer and the rest of their crew, they did. That was then - what about now????

BH: People have talked a lot about this emerging genre and they give it a lot of different names. What are some of the names you’ve heard people give this emerging genre and what’s your favorite?

Raatz: Well, the only name that I use is the word “transformational” as a qualifier. Other terms that people use as labels for the emerging genre include: spiritual, new age, metaphysical, inspirational, and so forth. I feel like those words have connotations and various meanings that invite people to disagree with them for one reason or another, but the word “transformation”, I think, is more of an inclusive word, a word that doesn’t have necessarily, the same baggage that some of the other words have, and it feels like a word that expresses wholeness as opposed to a particular viewpoint or slice of understanding. So “transformational” to me, transformational film, transformational media, as a phrase, is one that I feel invites people to participate and is inclusive.

BH: What exactly is your company's (Visioneering Group) role with these types of films?

Raatz: Well, certainly we do marketing and public relations publicity for transformational media. People have told me that I am one of the proponents of the whole notion of the transformational media and genre. Many people gave gone even as far as to say that I’m one of the pioneers, certainly with illustrious companies like Will (Arntz), Betsy (Chasse) and Mark (Vicente) and others.

About 20 years ago, we started Visioneering, and our goal was simply to only present projects, and work on projects that were transformational by nature of character. And we’ve never veered from that mission in these 20 years. This year, 2008 is our 20 th year anniversary and in the context of film, we started promoting films and marketing films back in 1991. We started with MindWalk and Baraka and A Brief History of Time, and so forth.

So I guess in a sense, at the very least we are opinionated and out-spoken about what we believe this genre is, what we believe it represents and what needs to be done to help grow it. And beyond that, we are also involved with distribution and consulting and producing. I’m producing a film with Eckhart Tolle based on a story written by Eckhart that Jim Carey will star in, so we’re kind of getting involved in many facets and aspects. We are also creating an alternative distribution system that we have a website that at least on paper, is pretty much done and will be going live at some point this year. We are currently structuring the alternative distribution system using a lot of the same outlets that were used back in 1991 and as recently as What the BLEEP and Peaceful Warrior and The 11 th Hour and many of the other films that we have been involved with.

BH: So, how would you describe what transformational media is about?

Raatz: Well, I’ve actually been trying to pen a definition for probably more than a year and I’ve been through several iterations of it, and none of them yet capture the essence of what I feel the genre represents. Now, another word, in my opinion, that comes close to creating a certain kind of understanding about transformational media is the word “wholeness” because, to me, spirituality is characterized by wholeness.

Transformational media therefore speaks in various ways of wholeness but it’s also a very gossamer term that everybody understands, certainly experientially but even intellectually. So I tend to shy away from using that word. I’ve even said that transformational films or transformational media is simply about life and the process of life, and the unfolding of life in all of it’s various ways and at all of it’s various levels. I haven’t yet created an official definition, one I’m comfortable with, one that I feel includes all the genre represents.

One thing that I do feel that distinguishes transformational media and films, is the intentionality behind the creation of the film or the media project. I think there are filmmakers out there who have created transformational films but they’d not necessarily call what they’re offering a transformational film. It would appear to them to simply be a well told, well produced story about some person or some process or some aspect of life that they find particularly appealing or universal.

They wouldn’t necessarily say it’s a transformational film whereas if you speak with many transformational filmmakers or producers of transformational media products, they will probably be much more explicit in there desire to share with you that there is a particular intention that they might term evolutionary, healing, transformational, or alternative or progressive. There is a variety of adjectives that people would use to describe the intentionality that they want their project to embody and they would like it to show up as a message about that in their offering. So I feel that this element of intentionality is one that really distinguishes at a certain level , the differences between a transformational film and a film that transforms or has that intended effect.

BH: Can you think of a couple examples of films that you wouldn’t necessarily think were transformational but based on the intention, they are?

Raatz: An example that comes to mind is Horton Hears a Who, the children’s film that’s out right now that Jim Carey is in. I thought I was going to see a Dr. Seuss film but I was very surprised and deeply moved by what I felt was a transformational message and content of the film. And I doubt very much that the filmmakers would say that this is a transformational film, but to those of us that are wearing those glasses, those transformational glasses, all of us tend to see the world through different lenses at different times in life, and right now, with that particular overlay in mind, I would definitely call Horton Hears a Who a transformational film. But again, I don’t think the filmmakers would necessarily say that.

BH: You did some of the PR for Peaceful Warrior, I’m curious what it’s like working with a studio and what the studio thought of the whole thing.

Raatz: That’s a great question. Studios are really adept at releasing films that are aimed more at a massive audience or that are of a particular kind, for example, actions films, romantic comedies, science fiction; the typical genres. Studios are really good at releasing those kinds of films and they have figured out over the decades, systems that seem to work to a greater or lesser extent for those kinds of films.

They do not necessarily understand the nature of a transformational film and how it needs to be handled in order to reach maximum success. For example, in my opinion, you can’t acquire a transformational film today and release it two or three months from now in the usual and customary fashion. A transformational film requires word of mouth and word of mouth takes awhile to build. It’s the kind of thing that you need a minimum, a bare minimum of three, four, five, months lead time to prep the market; to develop the market; to inform the market; to inspire the market, and that’s just one example.

Throughout the course of releasing a film, there are transformational principles for handling the film and then there are the usual and customary principles for handling a film release and the two do not necessarily work well together. In fact, now that I’ve had some experience working with studios and independents, my feeling is that often times the experience is rather like having one foot on the break and one foot on the gas pedal simultaneously. There can be a lot of friction between the people who are more studio oriented and the people who are more guerilla, or grass roots oriented.

BH: Do you think transformational media’s time has come, and if so, what do you see happening in the world or the market place to substantiate that?

Raatz: I think you can answer that question in two ways. At one lever, it certainly feel s like the time has come for transformational media because there is such a hunger, such an interest from the side of film goers, especially those who are themselves transformationally minded, as well as people who are on the filmmaking or technical or creative sides, who really want to bring these kinds of messages to the world.

Now in my opinion, What the BLEEP was one of those monumental moments in history. Before that time, obviously there were a few transformational films, like MindWalk andBaraka, and others, but none achieved the level of interest, success, penetration, awareness and so on that What the BLEEP did. I feel that What the BLEEP catalyzed the current interest in transformational film. What the BLEEP was an experience and a moment in history kind of like the 60’s, it will probably never be repeated in exactly that same way, but that moment when all of a sudden people realized, yes, we can use film to tell these stories, to present these messages. What the BLEEP gave permission to other people to follow suit, to follow in it’s footsteps and it hasn’t stopped, it has only grown.

Now, from the stand point of all of us being insiders in the transformational film genre, we would say, yes, it’s growing very much. However, if you were to look at it from the other side, from the side of Hollywood , “the business of Hollywood ” and probably even many, many mainstream movie goers, they still do not know much about this whole genre and the intent of it and what its implications are for healing the world or making the world a better place. But those of us who have been working in media for twenty years or longer, we know that everything we put out has a message, a transformational message, and that message inspires people, we certainly have to first get past the gate keepers, but if that message inspires people, we’ve seen first hand, up-close and personal, the positive and enduring effects that people experience from watching a transformational film.

There are many people in the business and out of the business who know nothing about this and therefore, in their eyes, it may be a trend, it may be a fad, they may not pay much attention to it, but I think in retrospect it’s easy to see that it’s more than a trend, it’s certainly more than a fad. It’s something that’s enduring, it is something that is impacting millions of people world wide.

BH: Let’s talk about the millions of people. What was your role with Eckhart Tolle and Oprah and their Webcast and what was the bottom line around the world on that?

Raatz: Well number one, all glory to Oprah. It was Oprah’s idea, it was all Oprah who made it happen. Period. I have been working with Eckhart and representing him for the past six or seven years and in late October, early November of last year, we received the phone call from Oprah’s producers. We were actually looking for ways to re-ignite interest in A New Earth.

Prior to Oprah, I understand that the book had only sold about 250,000 copies, which everyone felt was well below the number that the book should have sold given the success of the The Power of Now and Eckhart’s popularity as a teacher. So we were beginning to explore ways to figure out how we could increase the numbers and therefore expose people to the message of A New Earth. I was in Europe with Eckhart and while I was there I had this idea which we called “A New Year, A New You, A New Earth” and I spoke to Brian Tart who is Eckhart’s publisher and he liked the idea and we started exploring that. When Oprah’s producers called, I also mentioned that idea to them and they kind of liked that idea and we all started brainstorming about what could be done.

The bottom line is the idea for the webcast was Oprah’s and I feel like the second moment in transformational media history, following What the BLEEP, is Oprah’s webcast with Eckhart. It effected millions and millions of people world wide and opened people up who ordinarily would not have been exposed to A New Earth and to Eckhart’s teachings.

BH: How many people do they think were on the webcast worldwide?

Raatz: Well, I hear varying numbers, I have heard that at one time, there were more than two million people gathered together during a single webcast. But if you take into account the number of people who participated during the webcast itself, the number of people who downloaded the files and the number of people who streamed the files, the number that I heard recently, and again I haven’t verified this number, but I heard it was over 15 million. When watching the webcast, one had a sense that one was watching the unfolding of the future, that the webcast represented the convergence or the nexus point or the meeting point of television and the web, the possibilities.

BH: That’s another great example of how the time has come for this kind of thing.

Raatz: It’s a very good example, and it’s only one example. In the past couple of months I have probably consulted with 20 different films that are all of a higher caliber of transformational films and the genre just keeps growing and growing and we now represent the Unity Organization, as in Unity churches. There will be a transformational film festival at Unity Village in September and Visioneering is programming that and Unity itself is becoming very interested in transformational media. We’re also producing a webcast for Unity with Deepak Chopra and the theme will be his new book, The Third Jesus.

BH: Can you tell us some about GATE?

Raatz: For awhile now we have been working and developing an organization called GATE. It stands for Global Alliance for Transformational Entertainment. There are several purposes for GATE.

#1: To act as a catalyst to bring the professional, and I have to underscore the word professional, the professional creative and business communities of the entertainment industries together who have an interest, a sincere interest in the possibilities and potentials of media as tools of transformation.

#2 . It would also be a resource organization, everyone who is a member of the organization will be encouraged to share resources. So if you have a project that you are developing, you will look to the organization to help bring other like minded people in. If you’re looking for money, if you’re looking for contacts, if you’re looking for guidance or counsel, any kind of resource that can be used to help move the transformational media genre forward, hopefully will be available through the organization through its members. Hopefully those members will be of the mindset that they are there to help encourage more participation in the development in transformational film and media projects.

We are planning to hold our inagural meeting in Los Angeles later this year. We will have a website up, it will be a part of the Visioneering website, probably within six weeks, that has all of the information about GATE. Again, I mention that this is for the professional creative and business communities of the entertainment industries who are interested in transformational media and helping grow it as tools for transformation. We want to distinguish it from other organizations where there are many people involved who have an interest in the genre but who have not necessarily had real world experience or longer term experience in the filed.

BH: How many members do you think an organization like this might end up having?

Raatz: What I can say right now is, in our database we’ve identified almost 400 people who have either privately or publicly expressed their interest and support of transformational media, spirituality, alternative healing, world peace, that sort of thing, the values of the cultural creatives and people who are director’s, writers, producers, musicians, editors, and others.

Scott Carlin, who is the president of domestic distribution for HBO television has just come on the board as of last week and he’s a big believer of the idea and is going to work with me and others to help our innagural evening come about as well as helping the organization become known in the Hollywood community. My expectation is that we will probably have somewhere between 2,000 and 5,000 members within the first year.

(* What the BLEEP producer/director Will Arntz has also agreed to be on the board of GATE.)

Raatz: There is something else I want to mention because this is a sign of what I believe is meant to happen. We were contacted recently by Paulist Productions. Paulist Productions is associated with the Catholic Church and has produced a film called The Big Question, a film about forgiveness. Among others, Deepak Chopra, Thich Nhat Hahn and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar are in the film and Paulist Productions has hired Visioneering to help release and promote the film which will be coming out later this year. To me, the fact that Paulist Productions and it’s association with the Catholic Church is getting involved with transformational media and especially including people who are leaders in the consciousness movement says a lot. I chose to look at this a positive sign of interest in building bridges and becoming more inclusionary and universalizing such ideas and themes as forgiveness. There are even scientists in the film who look at the state of forgiveness from the standpoint of science . I think this is a very, very encouraging sign.