Redundant and unnecessary.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

With the aggressive title "Fierce Light: When Spirit Meets Action", the viewer is warned that this film is pushing a fuzzy agenda.Myself, I felt that its message was very strongly being pushed on me, but at the same time I felt that the speaker had little idea what the message was.The film has interesting documentary components. It's a collection of valuable videos of various protests and actions through time and across the globe. I suspect most of this material is available elsewhere. I'm not sure where else you could see it all in one place, so that has value.But then there are interviews with folks regarding spiritual activism, or even spirituality, and strong assertions and conclusions are made. Such things are neither proved in the film, nor even defined. Or rather, defined in so many ways, there's not really an answer. It's just the usual loopiness that amounts to "it is what I say it is" and "because". The film never really bothers to identify what is spiritual about any of this, or why it would fail if there was no spirituality (probably because we know it wouldn't fail, despite the narrator's claims to the contrary).As I see it, you can't get to community without jettisoning your indulgence of spirituality, which is ultimately a limiting thing, tending to isolate people into groups. Community is best achieved by dealing with the common reality that we all experience. The film didn't really address this at all.The same spirituality that claims to have motivated these actions that I and the narrator appear to favour has also claimed responsibility for some of the worst crimes in the world's history, and continues today. This seems to be touched on very briefly, but not really given serious thought.Spiritual folks, or those with certain favoured religions, wanting an easy re-affirmation of themselves will probably love this film. The rest of us won't.

Thank you for the effort, insight, chutzpah and grace it took to make this film sing the way it does.The content and characters were compelling. I felt fortified afterward. Thank you for that.One of the messages sticking with me was John Lewis and his stand for love - in the face of it all. The set up for his scene with the shots of the memorial sculptures in the South with the dogs was a powerfully imaginative way to let those sculptures come alive. The artist/s would have to be thrilled to see their work re-viewed like that.This kind of film assists one/me in falling in love more deeply with people. I like and need to be reminded about the deep goodness that abides. I especially appreciated the long close-ups that felt like still lives till the person looked up, down or smiled. That was living portraiture.What would it have taken for the developer to be touched? How do we/us affect change in the hearts that hold so much of a certain kind of power? How does one move them towards the common good? That's a skill set we need to master now.

Gives hope and direction to all of those who feel they are alone in this world wanting things to change for the better. After finishing the film I felt like maybe there's a chance that humanity will make it through the current world crises and that is no small accomplishment! Fierce Light has taken social action and activism going on all over the world and through history and connected it all into a web of inspired action that transcends politics and religion. After seeing this film I feel less alone and more hopeful, like the world has many genuinely spiritual people trying to make the world a better place whether they label themselves that way or not. A truly powerful documentary and work of art with masterful direction and sound design.

There are few films that are so complete that the edges disappear; that engage the entire body in viewing, and leave you palpably shifted. Fierce Light is a remarkable combination of all of these things. Art and heart. It defies conventions of exposition, relying instead on organic unfolding as its voice. In doing so, there is an honest equality in each story and character, Thich Nhat Hahn presented with equal weight as the young girl in South Central Farms. Their hardships and glories speak to a common human experience, and a deep undisturbed peace; calmness within the storm, from which creative and positive social action can arise. In this way, Fierce Light points to a path of peace that preexists the difficulties of the modern world, one that has not wavered in the wake of killing and fear, on which we have been standing together all along. Now, we are urged emotively, it is time to walk it.