Filmmaker and Joshua Tree Productions catalyst Josh Gippin

What makes a cool journey? I myself, have always considered traveling as something physical, and have thought of a journey as something of a soulful twist. The best treks for most of us are those that begin in giddy anticipation and somehow become a journey... a right of passage, when we suddenly realize we are somewhere we hadn’t expected, changed in ways we never imagined intellectually, emotionally and spiritually.

Some of the best-loved heroes take some rough roads, encompassing lots of these facets in their journey. Most cherished, are those where wanderlust returns them safely to their roots. Like the legendary heroine from The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy, and American icon Forrest Gump. We all want to make it back home safe. Documentary filmmaker and founder of Joshua Tree Productions, Josh Gippin’s look at addiction and recovery is filled with stories of making it back home safe, from hell and back.

Researching his master’s thesis as a cultural anthropologist, Josh’s life took a turn in the road when his destiny intertwined with artist, photographer, and now wife, Shane Wynn. Thanks to their groundbreaking film God As We Understand Him airing June 10th, on PBS channels 45 and 49 at 10PM, you’ll have the chance to walk the path. See those who have journeyed through addiction and recovery from Alcoholic Anonymous’ inception in 1935 (a program that originated right here in Northeast Ohio!) to the huge worldwide phenom it has become over the past seven decades.

As more than 12,000 people converge in Akron, Ohio for AA Founder’s Weekend, Cool Cleveland contributor Deb Dockery takes a look at the film as a part of this historic recovery model and its inception right here in Northeast Ohio -- as well as acknowledging those who “Walk the walk, and talk the talk,” everyday, as they help others heal.

In the God As We Understand Him documentary, husband and wife team of Gippin and Wynn provide an intimate look at the spiritual nature of the AA 12 step recovery process -- as seen from a number of multi-cultural perspectives and all major religious traditions. Agnostics and atheists, although rare in the membership, are not left out of this inclusive look at what this country was originally founded on... religious and spiritual freedom. Rarely is such a comprehensive view undertaken in an attempt to dispel myths about religion and spiritually.

Finally lifting AA’s shroud of public silence by maintaining AA participants’ anonymity during interviews, viewers are able to see first-hand the transformative power of recovery with both clarity and candor. The impact of alcohol and drug addiction affects an estimated 76 million people worldwide. Like it or not, each of us knows someone -- be it friend, acquaintence or even a family member -- who is struggling with addiction of some type.

Knowledge is power and to this writer's senses, this is what documentary filmmaking is all about... and at its finest. Dockery recently had the pleasure checking in with Gippin and Wynn and talking to them about incredible journey from Latin America to their back to their roots in Akron, Ohio.

Cool Cleveland: Josh you really have a love for this film project. I could see it when you were talking about God As We Understand Him, at your opening a few weeks ago and I’m curious, how did this all come about?

Josh Gippin: I was working on my master’s degree in cultural anthropology. I studied abroad in Equador, also Chile, and I spent a lot of time in Mexico. The idea to make a documentary about AA originally started while I was in Latin America.

I would tell people where I was from, thinking no one would have any idea where Akron or even Ohio was. To my surprise, people would make the connection “Oh, the home of Alcoholic’s Anonymous.” I started to look closer, and I would see signs in windows of storefronts, AA. It was a big thing all through Latin America. I realized this was really important. These people would have never heard of Akron, if it were not for AA. As it was, Shane and I, had finished our last film, and were looking for something that was specifically Akron, that had a national reach, and we realized AA had a global impact.

CC: Did you have any idea what you were getting into?

JG: I really didn’t. I just thought, well, this is a place that people go to get sober. I knew there were 12 steps, but I didn’t know what they said. When I started to learn about it, it was jaw dropping. Reading the Big Book, and Came To Believe in addition to the personal stories, seeing how faith developed, coming in as an agnostic, as a critical thinker, I was skeptical and I thought “they are always talking about God,” and a lot of others had the same criticism. Then I started to take a closer look, and I made the distinction between religion, and spirituality, and this was a very important distinction. When I think of religion I think of a deity, and in AA there was none of that. They encouraged people to find their own understanding of God. That was the biggest realization.

CC: As I was watching the film, I got the impression that you started out one place and this journey took you to a place that was very different?

JG: It did.

CC: Which turned out to be an amazing journey for you?

JG: It was. There were so many conversations, and I don’t know at what point it happened, but I realized the film was not just going to satisfy peoples’ curiosity or be entertaining. AA has a mission and it’s not just a mission, its people. People helping people to reach out and help those who are still suffering from addiction. To make a film that did anything less than help people would have been meaningless, and lack heart.

CC: Where was the point when you said, “Wow, this is bigger than me.” “Where was that turning point?”

JG: It is hard to say, but the third step. (Step 3: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives our to the care of God as we understood Him.) Coming in as someone who didn’t believe in God you have to say to yourself…. what am I turning my life over to? No one would tell me. I thought, what is this? It set me on this whole search as I was making the film… what is God…and what it became is… it doesn’t really matter. The question became, “what was my relationship with the divine?”

My own power, my own knowledge is limited. In the scheme of things, it was bigger than me, and so it was about humility, and that I don’t have a lot of control over a lot of things. I could go down a long list. AA talks about surrendering to God, and if there is trouble surrendering to God, it is about surrendering to your reality, that we don’t have control over a lot of things. You have to accept that. Now my wife is pregnant, and we don’t have any control over if the baby is a boy or a girl…there are just so many things.

CC: This changed you?

JG: It did. It changed the way I look at things. I became more accepting, and things went wrong with the project. My computer crashed, and it was a mess. We didn’t have the computer information for a month. If I hadn’t had the things AA had taught me, I think I would have become very frustrated, and angry. For reasons beyond my understanding the computer crash happened. I don’t think it happened without a reason. I don’t think anything happens without a reason. As it turned out, during that month I was torn away from my computer, I interviewed a ton of interesting people, seven or eight who were critical to this film. Without them, we wouldn’t have a film.

CC: So what was a curse, turned out to be a blessing in disguise?

JG: Yeah. To see that things were happening the way they were supposed to and that it worked out, and to know that. I think that is how the film and AA changed me. I think humility, gratitude, compassion all these things were in there in the original teachings of The Oxford Group, which AA was founded on. There was a book by Emmet Fox that was an interpretation of The Sermon on the Mount.

CC: One of the things I noticed when the film opened for those who were involved in the film making was the obvious and very deep love the AA members have for you following the making of this film. How did you decide who would be interviewed? You looked at all kinds of philosophical and religious views. How did that process work?

JG: I wanted to have a very broad spectrum of AA and it’s workings. I was determined. It took me a long time to find an Atheist. I had some trouble finding a Muslim, and Hindu member of AA, so I went directly to the Executive Director of The Islamic Society and also interviewed a Hindu priest, both were willing to look at steps and The Big Book, and make some comments. I really wanted all faiths to be included agnostics, pagans atheists. I wanted all views to be considered.

CC: I commend you for that. I admire that everyone was included.

JG: Thank you. I wanted to make one point. They were originally going to call AA, The James Club. I think it was Anne (AA founder Dr Bob’s wife) who wanted that because it was her favorite book of the Bible. If you go to Dr Bob’s house today, you will see a plague that reads, “Faith without work is dead. Show me thy works and I’ll show you my faith through my works.” I think that is really in the spirit of AA because that says to me, “Judge me by my works not by my beliefs, but my actions.” It speaks to that saying “Live and Let Live,” that type of philosophy.

CC: Not coming from an addiction background yourself or your family, what kind of friendships did you forge from this experience?

JG: I definitely made some connections with people that I think are going to be long-time friendships. Fortunately we did most of the interviews in Akron, so these are people who are here in town. I can’t name any names, of course, for reasons of anonymity, but my wife at times, have been sitting the table talking about the film, and I would say, “If I was in AA, I would ask this person to be my sponsor, and we would laugh.” I had three people that would have been great sponsors for me. These are people I have really come to admire and respect.

CC: One thing I wanted to mention readers about the film is that you didn’t choose people because they were high profile or polished. You chose them for what they had to say. I think that is a powerful aspect of the film. I did want to talk , also, about the financing of the film. How did you make it work?

JG: We were on a very strict budget. We did some out of state interviews, but most of our work was done right here in Ohio. The work is labor intensive 40-50 hour weeks for two years. Most of the cost is on the back end. Shane kept her photography business going and that is really what allowed us to do this. My grandmother “Bubba” lives with us, and we are actually working on a documentary project about her.

CC: What is your dream for this film?

JG: For it to be distributed through Hazeldon, the largest distributor of AA Materials so it can get into the hands of it’s intended audience to help anyone who has a need to look at addiction issues. Who want to learn more about it.

CC: So what’s next?

JG: I’m learning to call myself a Daddy. I have a daughter coming in September. Her name is Amelia Rose. You know, I think that religion gives people a sense of values, and not having a place of worship, I think AA has been the place where I have learned some of those deep values that I will teach my family. Love and service, helping the community, those values of being grateful and thankful for what you have and compassion towards others, trying to feel empathy for others pain, and honesty toward myself.

CC: That is a lot! So this was a gift to you going into fatherhood?

JG: Yes.

CC: Thank you for meeting with me to today, having me into your home and allowing me to be a part of this film. Good Luck to you with your new baby Amelia Rose, and please give Shane my congratulations. I admire your passion and vision, Josh.

JG: Thanks.

For more information about God As We Understand Him and Joshua Tree, visit the website http://www.joshuatreevideo.com.

For more information about AA Founder’s Day this June 6, 7 and 8, visit http://www.akronaa.org/foundersday.

For more information about Alcoholics Anonymous, visit http://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Deb Dockery dddockeryATaol.com
(:divend:)