Universal Face

If I were asked to describe Guy Lieberman, the youthful Israeli filmmaker, that is, besides the superficial visual cues I might recite–tall, good-looking, and trim–I would have to say that what most distinguishes Guy is chen, a grace and charm that is quite possibly the key to understanding his accomplishments as an intermediary between diverse cultures and religions. To this list I would add humility, combined with an earnestness and directness in approach. These qualities do not fully explain his drive, but they do account for his ability to gain the trust and cooperation of colleagues and subjects alike, in his world, the world of documentary filmmaking.

Born in Johannesburg to a prosperous South African Jewish family, and first brought to Israeli as a one-year-old (though the family elected to return after a short time), Guy gave early evidence of an attraction to and curiosity about indigenous African culture, and he mingled freely with the blacks and coloreds whom he encountered on his frequent city rambles. Not a bookish sort, rather more of a misfit in the academic milieu, in his early twenties he became a world traveler and visited some 33 countries over the next ten years, mostly in the developing world, in his words, “into deeper cultural space and deeper wild space,” in Africa, India, and central Asia.

His connection with the Tibetan exile community in Dharamsala, India, and with its leader, the Dalai Lama, was perhaps the deepest he established during his wander years. At his suggestion, the Dalai Lama agreed to meet with Nelson Mandela, and Guy found himself partly responsible for the complicated logistical maneuvering that was required. The meeting took place in a good atmosphere in August 1997, and was repeated in November 2004. During this latter visit, he also engineered a meeting between the Dalai Lama and Sannussi Dr. Credo Mutwa, whom he identifies as “a central figure, the core lineage holder of sub-Saharan African shamanism.” Although Guy intended that this meeting should be a private one, both men wanted it documented, and Guy, with several film projects already to his credit, saw to the filming of this singular event, along with many other highlights of the Dalai Lama’s third visit to the country.

His role as a link between two leaders of traditions quite dissimilar from Jewish practice and belief does not seem at all strange to him. In fact, he suggests that it was actually his exposure to traditional tribal people, environments, and life-styles that led him to search out his own “cultural wealth,” his own “internal ancient tradition.” This re-discovery, however, took several years to ripen. He recalls, “Before I came to live in Israel, a rabbi friend and mentor described the Jewish world of Torah as something like a sphere, with the core of that world being the intense and authentic learning of Torah, then various layers that would expand out from that, and on the outer edge Jewish individuals on the bridge between the Jewish world and the other world, something like ambassadors, and he saw me as one of them.”

Recognizing the value of his friend’s insight, he thought, “Well, I had better learn more about my traditionŠI’d best have a more solid internal cultural stability.” He has continued to explore his Jewish heritage, capped by marriage and aliyah, and today Guy can truthfully say, “I’m living a Jewish life. Recently, I was in South Africa as liaison for the Dalai Lama’s visit, and planning everything, and at 5 pm every Friday, by pre-arrangement, I suspended my role in the activities. The Tibetans are very respectful of that, but other people said to me, ‘You know, the Dalai Lama’s going to be speaking in Soweto on this Saturday, and you’re going to miss that? It’s a big spiritual happening! How can you put Shabbat over that?’ But in my mind, there’s no question. It’s just not an issue for me.”

As for his current work, Guy explains, “Now most of my focus is in the Jewish world. I’m still involved in advising on several interfaith projects, but my real focus is to dive further into the Jewish world and see what cultural interface needs to happen within our Jewish nation. And I realize that it’s actually much more challenging than bringing cultures from across the planet together.

“My heart and soul project at the moment is a vision called ‘Universal Face,’ a mosaic of Jewish harmony and expression that draws on music, artists, authors, thinkers, local cafe owners, and great rabbeim and a cross-section of the Jewish world, out of which we are going to make a series of short films that are inspired by the Ten Sephirot [or Emanations, identified by Kabbalists as essential aspects of God through which the creation manifests]. Each chapter will have a song, and a host of Jewish musicians that are playing together and being filmed, but they’re not playing together in the same place and the same time; they’re listening to each other, and they’re respondingŠ. It’s drawingŠfrom the entire cultural spectrum within the Jewish world–with a vision of creating many voices and one sound, along with interviews with various unique characters.”

Guy and his main collaborator, Executive Producer Moshe Tov Kreps, plan to produce ten 18 minute DVD formatted segments over the next two years. They are working with Carmi Wurtman of Blue Sun Productions, an Israeli music production house, whose main vision is to bring Israeli musicians into the English-speaking western world. This project holds the promise of doing exactly that.

As our conversation deepens, I can see the continuity of Guy Lieberman’s life work manifesting in his current project. Guy explains it this way: “There’s several layers here. First of all, there’s my historical activism–principally of working for the freedom of Tibet in a South African context–in a post-Apartheid South Africa. The issue with the Jewish world is far more subtle and difficult to grasp. But the point is that in its authentic unification, which I cannot describe, and [for which] there is no set of ingredients, there would have to be the impulse and the wish, from all Jewish people, to unify as a klal, as a nation.

“That unification, however it may manifest, will have repercussions. I believe from my gut that that unification will have a profound global impact. Let’s look at our own house with a serious, deep spring cleaning, and a real tikkun within ourselves and with each other, and then we will see something that is really beyond–a synergy that was ultimately and divinely intended.”

The challenge Guy and his colleagues have set themselves is to express in artistic form a grand spiritual vision. They are not the first to attempt such a synthesis, but I believe they have as good a chance as any to accomplish it. I’ll be keeping tabs on the project as it evolves and report back on its completion.