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Saturday, November 17, 2012

Director of "Life of Pi" feature film on "Faith" / "Search for God" (Ang Lee)

from Deborah Potter's interview as posted at "Religion & Ethics Newsweekly" (Nov. 16, 2012):

On the surface, it’s an adventure story about a boy who survives a shipwreck in a lifeboat, alone, except for a man-eating tiger. But at a deeper level, “Life of Pi” explores the meaning and endurance of faith—an unusual theme for a Hollywood movie that critics have called “dazzling” and “magical.” For director Ang Lee, the experience of translating the best-selling novel to the screen required a leap of faith.
ANG LEE (Director, Life of Pi): It is a journey, as a test of the strength of our faith, of how firm we believe in it. I think that has to be the number one thing I took from the experience.
DEBORAH POTTER: In some ways, the story of young Piscine Patel, known as Pi, defies belief from the start. The son of a zoo-keeper, the boy is raised Hindu but also practices Christianity and Islam, to the disappointment of his father. . .
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POTTER: So is a film about a man’s search for God aimed at helping audiences find God?
ANG LEE: You know, you cannot tell somebody a story, or show them a movie, for them to believe in God. It wouldn’t be that easy. You have to go through suffer and pain, you have to be in awe. You have to go through tests to believe in God, or not believe in God in some cases.
DAVID MAGEE: To my mind it doesn’t say you have to believe in God, it doesn’t say you shouldn’t believe in God. It says have faith in the stories that take you through your experience with life and if they take you to God, they take you to God, and if they take you in other directions, that’s fine, but listen to the stories.
POTTER: And as Pi himself says in telling his story, “You’ll decide for yourself what to believe.”

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/episodes/november-16-2012/life-of-pi/13854/

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