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- [00:07]
Sean Fee
Journey on Magic lies within the trails we ride. You're listening to the Journey On Podcast with Warwick Schiller. Warrick is a horseman trainer, international clinician and author who helps empower horse people from all over the world with the skills, knowledge and mindsets needed to create trusting partnerships with their horses. Warrick offers a free seven day trial to his comprehensive online video library that includes hundreds of full length training videos and several home Study courses@videos.warwick shiller.com.
- [00:44]
Warwick Schiller
G' day everyone. Welcome back to the Journey On Podcast. I'm your host Warwick Schiller and my guest this week is a filmmaker named Sean Fee. And Sean, when I first met him he was from Switzerland and I used to refer to him as this Swiss filmmaker I know, but now he lives in Majorca, Spain and Sean reached out to us here a couple years ago and he'll tell you this story when I get him on the podcast. But he reached out a couple of years ago about doing a very artistic he likes to do these artistic projects and wanted to do a 10 to 15 minute short documentary on what we're doing and ended up coming out to the podcast summit and realized that, well, there's a whole lot more to it than a 10, 10 or 15 minute documentary. So, so we have, you know, we're, we're all kind of joined together on this and we Sean's kind of the spearhead of the whole thing, but we are putting together a a documentary called Rekindle and I want to read you something from the Rekindle website. So Sean's come up with a website for this thing. It's called the website's rekindledocumentary.com but this is what the essence of the film is according to Sean on the rekindled documentary.com website, so it says. Essence of the Film Rekindle is a feature documentary that illuminates the transformative bond between humans and horses, offering a mirror to our collective journey of healing, connection and self discovery. Guided by celebrated horseman Warwick Schiller, the film unfolds as an intricate tapestry of personal stories, breathtaking visuals and reflective conversations. At its heart, Rekindle explores how the ancient bond between humans and horses can guide us towards a deeper understanding of nature, of ourselves and of each other. Structured around Warwick's own journey, the film follows him as he engages with a diverse group of contributors, friends and kindred spirits whose lives have been profoundly shaped by their connection to horses. Each story serves as a unique lens, shedding light on different aspects of horsemanship from emotional healing and mindfulness to the profound insights that emerge from living in harmony with the natural world. The documentary transitions between Warwick's personal reflections, cinematic reenactments of anecdotes, and verite style scenes of his interactions with contributors in their environments. So that kind of gives the game away a bit there and. But I think probably if you want to get a real idea of what Sean's on about for this, the mission statement, which I'm going to read to you right now that's on the website, is really the heart of the whole thing. I think, you know, it's that last passage alluded to this being a lot about horses, but it's not really so. The mission statement says. For millennia, humans and nature have shared an unspoken dialogue, one of balance, respect and interdependence. Yet in today's rapidly modernizing world, this connection is fading. Rekindle exists to restore this bond, bringing forth the ancient wisdom of our ancestors and the transformative power of storytelling to create a future rooted in harmony with the natural world. At the heart of our mission is the belief that animals, particularly horses, are more than companions. They are sentient beings with whom we have evolved alongside, shaping our cult, consciousness and sense of self. Through rekindle, we advocate for their welfare, recognizing their role in not only our past, but in the healing of our present and the shaping of our future. Horses now stand at a liminal tipping point in their long history with us. Without a shift in how we understand their value, not as tools of industry, but as sentient beings and companions on our journey back to nature, they risk fading into obsolescence with the machinery of modern society. Yet many of us believe that the horse is calling to us, urging us to awaken, not only to preserve their place in our world, but to remember our own. We are committed to amplifying indigenous knowledge, honoring the voices of those who have long understood the sacred relationship between humans, animals and the land. Indigenous traditions hold essential teachings about stewardship, interconnectedness and respect, wisdom that is urgently needed in the face of ecological crisis. By supporting and sharing these perspectives, we aim to help preserve them for future generations to come. Rekindle is more than a documentary. It's a movement. Through the stories told in our film. We invite people to reawaken their connection to the natural world, fostering a consciousness that values empathy, mindfulness and coexistence. We believe that by listening to the stories of horses, healers and wisdom keepers, we can reshape our relationship with nature shifting from dominance to. To partnership and, you know, Coming with that last sentence there, you guys are probably familiar with previous podcast guest Emily K's daughter and her very famous giving versus trading way of looking at the world. That last sentence kind of hints to that. And funnily enough, Emily's going to be a big part of this documentary, so that's a little bit what it's all about. I'll get Sean on here in a second and we'll have a conversation about how all this came about and where we. Where we hope to take it, where it's going to. Hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. Sean Fee, welcome to the Journey on podcast.
- [05:58]
Sean Fee
Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure.
- [06:01]
Warwick Schiller
No worries at all. So, you know, so in the intro, I, I would have. I talked about the. The rekindle documentary and what we're kind of up to with that. I thought with the podcast we might start out maybe if you could tell us exactly what you. You do, and then we might get into how you ended up choosing what we're up to for what was a little project. Now it's a big project, so maybe we'll start there. What is it exactly you do in the world?
- [06:33]
Sean Fee
So I am a storyteller. I'm a filmmaker, and I make most of our family's money with commercial advertising. And while I am very happy to be paid to do any kind of filmmaking, when I get the chance, I love to give myself more of a free project. So I've made a point of sitting down every year, usually in January, and allowing myself to just meditate on stories that hold a lot of meaning for me. And so two years ago, in January, I sat down and very quickly, the image of a horse came up in my imagination. And following that, I did some research and quickly came across your name. It didn't take long. I. I would have to. You know, every story has its history. And so my history with horses is from my 20s. When I was in my 20s, I had a girlfriend and she was a horse trainer, and she's an amazing horsewoman. So if I wanted to spend time with her, I had to hang out on the ranch. And I would, I would go and watch what she was doing and just hang out and, you know, shovel, poop, you know, stuff you do on a horse farm. And I, you know, one day she pointed me in the direction of this one horse who's all on his own and said, why don't you go play with him? And I was like, yeah, sure. I was, you know, young and naive, and I Love to try out new things. And so I went, and over the next couple of years, I formed a really close relationship with this horse called Sage, and we went on all sorts of adventures together. We ended our relationship with a ride from Santa Cruz to San Francisco. And so, yeah, I, I, I won't get into too much detail because that story is kind of long and there's a lot of twists and turns in there, but basically, I had this previous relationship to a horse, and it was kind of his image that came into my mind this January morning when I sat down and thought, what should I pour my energy into this year into? And these projects are always unmotivated by money or gain or it's just out of pure interest in the topic, in the subject. And so I had seen some horse exposed with her, and I knew a couple of names about, you know, the people in this world of natural horsemship that she was into. And so, yeah, your name came up pretty quickly, and I was like, oh, this guy's, this guy's on to something. So I, I, I sent you an email, and I just kind of put it out there. What would you think about me coming and following you around for a couple of days and doing a little short film about your work and what you're up to? And that very quickly developed into something much bigger as I got to know more about what you were up to and what your family's up to. You're, you're like a, a unit, a crew. It's amazing to see you and your wife, your son, how you have come together to be quite prolific with the work you're doing. And, and it extends, I would say, outside of the horse world quite far with your podcast, this podcast, the different people that you're giving platform to, like myself. So this is interesting for me because I'm usually the one on the other side of the camera or the microphone. So thank you for the challenge and, and, but I like challenges, and, you know, I, I promise to return the favor.
- [11:30]
Warwick Schiller
So, yeah, we, we.
- [11:33]
Sean Fee
Had a lot. We had. What did, what happened? We sent emails back and forth.
- [11:39]
Warwick Schiller
You first, you know, you had a horse come to you in this meditation and like, okay, I want to do something with horses. What. When you started looking, you know, you get on the Internet, like, looking up horse people, did you have an idea of the kind of story you wanted to tell then, or did you just start looking up horse people? And then it kind of morphed after, after that. What were you looking for initially?
- [12:12]
Sean Fee
Yeah, question. Okay, so I Think after the meditation, I kind of sat back and I took some notes on why that may. Why maybe that topic came up. And I remembered clearly this feeling of. I mean, I'm. I'm really into nature and animals and the natural world, and I have three children and I. I really make point of getting them out there and experiencing things in the natural world. I think that's really important. And so I remembered watching Lena and how she would work with the horses and how she would get them to do stuff without doing anything. Basically, they would kind of interact in this magical way. And then when I eventually started working with Sage, this horse, it was a. A bond that I've never had with any other kind of animal where I. I was receptive to him and I was, you know, very naive and. And up for the challenge. But at the same time, when he expressed. When he communicated to me that he wasn't into it or he wasn't up for playing, then I would just let him go back and do his thing. So I think he appreciated that I listened to him and. And we became quite close. And then actually later on she told me, and I think she did this intentionally. She. She made a point of not telling me that he was a horse that nobody else wanted to ride because as soon as anyone else would work with him or get on his back, he would do something like throw them off or bite them or something like that. He never did that once. So something about this very naive but friendly approach he liked quite a lot.
- [14:32]
Warwick Schiller
You know, I think you also. Sorry to interrupt. I was going to say, I think the naive part of it was probably a big part of it is you didn't come with any baggage about how horses should act or should be or. And I imagine his, you know, the behaviors he showed to other people were probably a little bit of a reflection of their perception of the. The horse person relationship. Like, they probably came in it from a, you know, maybe like a dominance over type paradigm and then that was reflected back to him. And that's just a guess, but I have found that. I have found that sometimes people who don't know anything about horses are almost the easiest ones to help from the perspective I currently have, because they really don't have any. They don't have any baggage to unravel. So sorry to interrupt, but that's some thoughts on why. And, you know, you've got the few guys listening. You can hear the way Sean talks. He's, you know, he's got this soft, gentle, thoughtful. You know, I love the way that you. Because I tend to talk really fast, I want to give everything out, whereas you tend to have this measured pace to where you kind of almost give careful consideration to what's going to come out of your mouth, you know, And I imagine that that's part of your artistic thing, too. But sorry to interrupt. Anyway.
- [16:07]
Sean Fee
I don't know. I definitely try. It's. It's a conscious effort. And it's funny you say that, because that topic came up when I was preparing for this because, you know, usually when I'm asked to do something outside of my, you know, comfort zone, I have to, you know, control the anxiety and the thoughts that come up. And so in I was thinking, oh, God, I'm not used to doing this, to be asked the one who's being asked questions. And I thought, well, you know, the best picture I can give myself is to try and take a deep breath and let things come from the heart rather than the head. And usually when I allow myself to act like that, it comes out much better. And if I get, you know, too heady, it comes out a bit scramblingly. Um. Yeah, so. So back to Sage and the reason why I wanted to make this project with you and what I found so intriguing about the topic of horses. So. So once we developed our relationship and I started actually, you know, riding and. And watching, you know, what. What other people were doing, I realized that one tip Lena gave me, you know, she said, you're not. When you're riding a horse, you're not. You're not pulling or pushing. You're making a space for them to move into. And I was like, oh, wow, okay. That completely makes sense to me. So with my hips, I would kind of just open up and make it like we're. We're together. And I want to look over here, and I want to look over here. And it's all about enjoying the moment and just having a, you know, having a walk around together and then getting more precise. Can I make him? Can I make it? Yeah, I guess that's what it is. But can we go backwards together without me pulling on the range? You know, it's got really exciting for me. The more. The more I could connect with him, and I. I really don't have the knowledge to understand what was happening in that moment. And. And my relationship with Lena and the horse ended fairly abruptly, and I never got a chance to follow it further. So when. When he came up on this meditation, I. I think those were the parts of. Of the story that I wanted to investigate. And so the stuff that you're doing resonated with all of those topics really well. And I saw someone who was on kind of a similar quest to understand and spread knowledge.
- [19:37]
Warwick Schiller
Can you. You had said that you know, once a year in January, you kind of sit down and you go, okay, I want to make something. Can you tell us about some of the other artistic documentaries that you've. You've made?
- [19:50]
Sean Fee
Yeah, sure. So I've made just to give you like a run, run off a list. I've done a few films about athletes, people pushing their, their physical body and their abilities in an athletic way, and surfing and snowboarding and skateboarding and all sorts of sports like that. I've, I've done a short film about artists in Turkey. Just very diverse topics, and each one of them has their own backstory and would take 10 minutes to give it justice. But those are. That's a kind of short list of the types of stories I've been.
- [20:42]
Warwick Schiller
So tell me about the artists in Turkey. Why artists and why Turkey? What. What. How did you. How did you, you know, how did you spin the globe and stick your finger on that particular place in the world and that particular artistic endeavor?
- [21:01]
Sean Fee
So one of my good friends, his wife was Turkish, and this was at a time when Turkey was in the media a lot. I was getting a lot of negative attention in the media. And I remember her talking about her friends and thinking, you know, there's all the political stuff that we hear. But I bet you if we would go there and talk to the people, maybe people like me, I'd be very interested to hear what they would have to say. And I, I always carry a kind of short list of questions, which I've told you before. And it's like, these are the questions we ask them, you know, what gets you up in the morning? What do you live for? What holds you back? And then the final question is always, what do you hope for future generations? And through these, as a kind of guiding way to approach people. I usually, usually get down to the core of about. And so we made it a family holiday. We, we got our whole, you know, my brother, myself, my good friend, my other good friend, and all our families, we, we. We went out there and, you know, people were even at the time not recommending traveling to Turkey because of the political situation. But what we found when we got there was the most welcoming and beautiful people and culture. And the conversations were very interesting and, you know, full of hope despite, you know, what was going on in their country. So it was Kind of an exercise to see what's behind what we hear in the news and. Can I tell a different story?
- [23:20]
Warwick Schiller
Yeah, you know, that's. I had. I had a guest on the podcast or two guests at the same time. Oh, last year, I believe. And he was a. He was in the. I think it's the sas, Australian Special Forces. And he was a. He was a. He was an intelligence. And he would find bomb makers in. Pretty sure it was a rack. He would let you know, he'd use his intelligence assets to figure out where bomb makers were and then they'd drop bombs on the bomb maker or they'd go in and catch him or whatever. And his partner, she was in. She had like a. Like a PhD in social work and one in terrorism or a master's in social work. Masters in Terror had the most interesting combination of things. But they'd both been over there and just some of the stories they told about the people is unlike what you hear in the news about that particular country. Like, you know, as we record this podcast, yesterday, America dropped some big old bombs on Iran. And, you know, in the news we are portrayed this image or whatever, this idea of Iran. But I bet the Iranian people don't share that. You know, they don't fit into that image that we get. We get portrayed. So that must have been really interesting, you know, the. What you hear in the news. So what was going on in Turkey at the time? I was going to say it must have been interesting what you hear in the news about Turkey and then going to Turkey and actually talking to the people of Turkey. It's just a totally different. Different perspective.
- [25:17]
Sean Fee
It was a totally different perspective. Yeah. I don't. You know, it was this. I think Erdogan had just come. Come up and. And was. There was a kind of civil, distressed and I don't remember the details exactly. And I tried, if I'm honest, I tried not to pay too much attention to those details because I find them to be a distraction from the truth, which is that regular people like you and I have other stuff to talk about which may be more meaningful.
- [26:00]
Warwick Schiller
Yeah, so that was. That was. So the question was about some of the. The different films you've made. Something else interesting about you. I've. You know, when we first. When you first contacted me a few years ago now, you were living in Switzerland, and I used to refer to you as this Swiss filmmaker, but now you live in Majorca, Spain. And so I'm not even sure I've referred to as a Spanish filmmaker, but you don't have a Swiss or a Spanish accent. So you're from England originally?
- [26:30]
Sean Fee
Not quite.
- [26:31]
Warwick Schiller
No, not quite. Okay. Okay, tell me where this accent comes from and how did you end up with it?
- [26:38]
Sean Fee
So back to the beginning. I mean, when you ask me where I come from, I actually don't think of myself, but I think of my parents and their parents and their parents, because we all have our roots and our heritage. And I think you're come out of this. So I would have to mention my. At least my parents. My mom is American and my dad is Scottish, and they're both wonderful people. And they. They have their story. And that story took them to a little town in California just north of San Francisco called Bulimas. It's a kind of small alternative community on the beach, very idyllic place. And that's where I was born, and I spent the first part of my childhood there. So the American accent was. Was built in from the start, but it changed when we moved to England when I was around 7 or 8 years old. And then I lived in England until I was in my early 20s. And then I moved back to California and then moved to Switzerland when I was 27 and lived there for 13 years. And six months ago, we relocated to Mallorca. Okay, so that's the short. That's the short version.
- [28:20]
Warwick Schiller
Okay, that was a short version. But there was a little hint in there of maybe something that informed your view on the world, how you ended up being this artistic filmmaker type dude. Tell me about this quote unquote, alternative community that you grew up in for the first seven years of your life. I mean, you think about. They say by the time you are seven, a lot of the ideas are cemented in your head and you have a perspective on the world that. I mean, it's kind of usual in the circles I run in, but it's not usual in a lot of places. So tell me about this alternative community that you grew up in.
- [29:04]
Sean Fee
So maybe, maybe I talk about my parents and why they went there. So my. I think they were drawn to it because it represented their guide. And at the time, they were looking for a place to have a family, a place to have good organic food, and somewhere to allow their children to enjoy life. And they. My mom later trained as a Waldorf teacher, and she sent me and my brother and sister to the Waldorf school wherever we were living.
- [29:55]
Warwick Schiller
Tell me more about what is a Waldorf teacher and what is a Waldorf school.
- [30:01]
Sean Fee
So Waldorf education was started by a man called Rudolf Steiner, the 1920s, I think. And he was a pretty amazing guy. Came up with ideas like biodynamic farming and homeopathic medicine. These were the things that came out of what him and his friends were doing. And Waldorf education, in a nutshell, is about allowing everything you do in life to come from a healthy relationship with your inner world, with your inner, inner child, your inner life forces. So they focus on a lot of creative subjects. They have a lot of arts and crafts and hands on stuff and they get into philosophy and a lot of drama and acting and performance. And then also they have a subject called Eurythmy, which is one of the, one of the more hard to explain subjects, I would say. It's a form of dance, basically a kind of interpretive dance. And through these movements you can spell out sounds so people kind of make fun of it because it's kind of this very different looking performance art where you can spell out words or your name. And so being able to spell out your own name and your rhythm is one of the, the, one of the highlights of going to a Waldorf school.
- [32:05]
Warwick Schiller
That's fascinating. So the previous guest I had on the podcast, you've actually had a conversation with it, Beverly Kane. She, she, one of the things she did was she was the secretary of the San Francisco Parapsychology Research Group and got to hang out with all sorts of really interesting people. So they, you know, they, they did remote viewing, they did telekinesis, they did spoon bending, all of that sort of, that sort of stuff. She was, she was absolutely fascinating. And, and like back in the day was hanging out with people like Stan Groff and, you know, back in the day. But during that conversation I said to her, you know, what's really interesting is the government, you know, during the Cold War they had this, this thing called MK Ultra, which was a government project to use people with, with basically like psychic powers to remote view what's going on in the Kremlin and that sort of thing. And then they were working on telekinesis and they're working on, if you've ever seen the, the TV show Stranger Things, the girl in that kind of like the experiments are doing with that girl. And I said to Beverly, isn't it interesting that the government writes the curriculum for schools? The government is doing this on the side. They know it works, but they don't incorporate that into the curriculum for schools. Like who would we be if, if, if at school, especially from a young age, we were taught how to harness these extra, extra Sensory powers that most people don't know we have. And if you, you know, if you think about. If you think about one of the. One of the threads of this, this rekindled documentary is about reconnecting with nature and reconnecting with the senses that we had as indigenous people, as hunter gatherers, like the, you know, those senses that we don't particularly seem to have these days, but. But, you know, indigenous people did. Who would we be if that sort of thing was. And I was thinking about this when I was talking to Beverly. Who would we be if that sort of thing was incorporated into our schools? And it sounds like the Waldorf School was kind of at least not just making little cogs in the machine. But, yeah, I didn't know anything about Waldorf School. Sounds fascinating.
- [34:51]
Sean Fee
Definitely. And you do get the feeling that the powers that be would prefer us not to rekindle our relationships with the. The wisdom that seems to be inherent in all of us. Because, you know, once you get into it a little bit, this. This world opens up and it. See, it feels to me like stuff that we are not learning for the first time, if you know what I mean.
- [35:29]
Warwick Schiller
Yes. We're reconnecting with it. We're rekindling those abilities that. Yeah, I've had. I've had a number of guests on the podcast who, you know, have had stuff to do with hunter gatherers and just some of the, Some of the stories they tell you about the, The. The almost supernatural things that these people can all do. Yeah, just amazing. Did I ever tell you about Jane Pike's husband? So Jane was one. Jane's been on. On the podcast a couple of times, but her husband was a documentary filmmaker for National Geographic. And when I first met him, he told me a story about how they were in a jungle somewhere in the rainforest, maybe in South America, I'm not sure with this tribe. And they were filming them and one of the members of the tribe, or they had an interpreter with them maybe, but they would really dense jungle and they stayed with these villages and every day the men would go out into the jungle to. To hunt, and so they follow along. Giles, who is Jane's husband, was the sound guy. He wasn't the camera guy, he was the sound guy. But they follow these guys and they would go off hours and hours through the jungle, and when they came back to the village, they'd usually come back from a different way that they left. But there's no trails. The canopy of the forest is so thick overhead, you can't quite Tell where the sun is. And Giles was interested. Like, how do they find their way back to the village? Like, I can't figure it out. And so through the interpreter, he said to the chief or whoever, one day he said, how do you. I can't figure out. How do you guys find your way back to the village? And the guy said, well, we, we asked the animals. And Giles said, but, but I haven't seen you actually stop and look up at a monkey and go, oo, oo, ah, ah. And the monkey point your way back to the village. And this guy said, oh, we don't, we don't talk. And he gestured from his mouth. He said, we don't talk to the animals. And I can't remember if he touched his top of his head or his heart, but he said, we talk to the animals. And Charles is like, do you mean you can non verbally communicate with animals? And the guy was like, sure. Can't you? And Charles was like, no. And the story goes, this guy turned around and said to all the kids, kids, kids, come over here. This guy can't talk to the animals. That was, it was so foreign to them that a human being couldn't do that. And that's the sort of thing that fascinates me. Like this is who we used to be. And these are the powers or the senses we used to have. And we still have the ability to do it. We just haven't been taught how to tap into it. All the intuition stuff gets taken away from us. There's a place in Utah called Univision, and it's in a. It's part of a martial arts studio there. And I saw a documentary on this one time. I think the documentary was called Superpowers or Super People or something like that. But they can teach people to see with a full blackout eye mask on. And I don't know if, if it's intuition or if they can. They get like sonar, like bats, whatever, but you'll. And in this documentary, it showed teaching kids as young as five and you know, humans as old as 75 or 80 sort of thing. And in the end they go through this obstacle course and they, they, they're completely blindfolded. They go through this obstacle course and it's not like it's a set obstacle course where you learn the pattern. They run along and they duck under this thing and jump over this thing and they pick up a stick and they pop a balloon. One of the really fascinating things was they had this guy had this pile of like little flat discs in his hand, a pile of them. And each one was a different color. And he starts flicking them onto the floor like little Frisbee, like flick, flick, flick, flick, flick. And there's a person standing there with this blackout eye mask on. And they say, red, yellow, blue, red, red, green, yellow, blue. As fast as this guy could flick him. And they can't see it. And it's a, it's a teachable skill that this place in Salt, I think it's in Salt Lake City or Provo, Utah, teaches people. And so that would be one of these senses that we have that, you know, the way we're taught. We're taught not to tap into that, but this place can teach people to tap into it. So these are not, these are not indigenous people. These are, are suburban housewives. These are kids, you know, like. Anyway, what I'm getting on here is there are things that we can do that we don't know we can do anymore because we're no longer taught that.
- [40:17]
Sean Fee
Yeah, there's, there's definitely a lot more than meets the eye going on. As you say in the trailer to the film. Yeah, I wonder, I wonder what these guys are tapping into. If they can see color. Are they, are they maybe seeing through the eyes of other people? Or is, is there a certain, you know, audible difference in color or. I don't know.
- [40:51]
Warwick Schiller
I said Univision. I think it, Sorry, I think it was called Vibravision. Let me look it up here. I might actually just read you a real quick thing from there.
- [41:00]
Sean Fee
Yeah, please do.
- [41:02]
Warwick Schiller
Master your energy. Access a 5000, a 500 year old Indonesian royal energy practice previously reserved for royalty. In just five days, you can unlock the profound benefits of two words in Indonesian I can't pronounce. An energetic martial art that enhances all aspects of life. Learn to master your energy, deepen your connection to your intuition, and align with your higher self through a transformative immersion experience. Master your energy. Blah, blah, blah. Enhance sensory perception. Develop beyond the five senses, potentially experience extrasensory perception. Wow.
- [41:37]
Sean Fee
To check that out.
- [41:38]
Warwick Schiller
Interesting.
- [41:39]
Sean Fee
Well, it makes me think of, reminds me a little bit of an experience I've had recently in preparation for the documentary that we're working on. I've been doing hikes out into nature and just sitting, finding a nice spot to sit and sitting there for half an hour or so and, and doing different meditation practices. But one of the big experiences is there's so much life when you just shut up for a second and listen and just what you can hear, but then what you can Feel. And then the journey back to my bike or my car or whatever, through the forest or whichever way I've taken is so different because I'm. I'm way more aware of the birds and the animals, and I walk with my dog. And so the. There's definitely. What. How does Danica call it? The. There's a. There's a way of describing, like, the disturbance.
- [43:05]
Warwick Schiller
The ring of. The ring of disturbance is what, Donnie.
- [43:08]
Sean Fee
Right. So I guess our ring is fairly large. But. But in any case, there's still such an interesting dialogue going on in nature, and I think if you would just pay attention to that for long enough, there's no reason why you wouldn't know. Oh, okay. They're talking about this and that, or water or this tree or that place that would essentially. Back to your story about the. The audio guy. Direct you to back home, basically.
- [43:48]
Warwick Schiller
Yeah. When. I don't know if you've. Have you ever listened to Donagha's podcast? You have?
- [43:54]
Sean Fee
Yeah.
- [43:54]
Warwick Schiller
You know, because she. She talks about, you know, getting to where she could move through a forest and you could, you know. You know, you're getting good when you can walk under a tree and the bird song does not change as you approach and you pass by, so your ring of disturbance gets smaller and smaller. And I feel like that ring of disturbance is almost like that. You're mentally quiet. Like, you. Your mind can go kind of blank and not have that blah, blah, blah going on in there. And I think that's a. You know, that affects your energy and. Yeah. And what you were talking about going out into nature like that. There's a book I read a number of years ago, and I can't remember what it was called, but it was about shamanic practices and beginning shamanic practices. And one of them was go and sit in nature for, you know, 20 minutes, half an hour. And one time when you sit there, just sit still, but see what you can see with your eyes. But then another time, you do it, and you sit there and you close your eyes and you just concentrate on what you can hear. Then another time, you sit there and you concentrate on what you can feel in your body from the environment. And then you get to where you become very good at all three of those things, and then you do them all together. Together. And that's almost like the practice that you've been doing.
- [45:29]
Sean Fee
Yeah. And I imagine that some. Somewhere along the lines of what Donica is talking about is being able to do all three of those simultaneously while moving through nature, because Being able to walk in a certain way. And I loved her story about the encounter with the wolf, the. That being like the. The kind of pinnacle of her experience out there in Montana, I think. Yeah. Okay. Being allowed into this space where nature is okay with you being there. You're. You're. You're dissolved. You've dissolved back into this space that we've been. We taking. We've taken ourselves out of for so long. And I think these. Again, these. These men who find their way, communicate with the animals to. To direct themselves, I think they just didn't step out of that space.
- [46:39]
Warwick Schiller
That's. That's the thing. They didn't. They. Yeah, they didn't. They didn't have it drummed out of them. They had. It actually drummed out into them. And, you know, probably my favorite of Donega's stories was when she would sit out there and eventually got to where she could be so internally still that a deer walked past her and she reached out and just brushed the hairs of its flank. And it didn't startle like that, like a wild. A wild deer. And so. Yeah, so Donaghiri is kind of. What would you call her, Quite an advisor on this project that we're doing. And we're so fortunate to have her involved because she. I don't know. She is.
- [47:20]
Sean Fee
She gets it.
- [47:21]
Warwick Schiller
She. Well, she doesn't get it. She is that. That rekindle. You know, she has rekindled, if she ever lost it in the first place. Yeah, she has that. She has those. Those senses that we're, you know, so fascinated about. But then she has so much, you know, like, she's been, you know, she was in that Kiss the Ground documentary. So she's. She knows a lot about the documentary side of it, and she said she's got so many contacts, and almost every time I talk to her, she. She tells me something else that just blows me away. So, you know. You know, my son Tyler's a bass player in a band. And here. I don't know what. Why she mentioned it, but here, a little while ago, during one of our texts, Donegan says, oh, yeah, when I worked for Victor Wootton, he said something about this. And I'm like, victor Wootton? Who's Victor Wootton? So I look him up. He was voted world's best bass player by Bass Magazine three years running. Is the only person who's ever done that. He's. I think he's won, like, five Grammys. Like, he's the world's best bass player. And I'm like, and she's not in the musician world, but I don't know what the hell she was doing. Oh, I know what she's doing. Working for him. Part of his, when he teaches, people would teach kids to play the bass. Part of it was immerse in nature and so she ran the nature camp part of that. So it was another way of making them better musicians, was making them more in tune with nature.
- [48:59]
Sean Fee
Yeah, I think it's, it's fascinating what types of people are drawn to these topics. I think you, you probably find it with your work, but with the rekindle process in general, which is, you know, nature lovers or animal lovers, anyone looking to, you know, have some of these experiences. There's just a lot of us, there's a lot of us out there who are kind of tired of the way things are going on this planet and up for a bit of a change. And these are the things that feel authentic and, and so I think these connection points seem very random, but they're actually tied together by this desire to do something different.
- [50:04]
Warwick Schiller
Yeah, it's been interesting. You know, you're talking about, you think that you're kind of the only one who thinks about this stuff or whatever, and then you realize there's more people out there. And the podcast, you know, especially with the guests I've had on the podcast, have really bought, you know, people out of the woodwork as far as, I don't know, it's like they've found their tribe sort of thing. Like, yes, there's a, there's a group of, you know, like minded people out there and you came out last year and I think this was when you were still thinking about a short documentary, but you came out last year for our, our podcast summit here in Paso Robles and that, the podcast summit, you know, I've tried to explain it in the past. It's very hard to explain exactly what happens in the energy there. But why don't you, why don't you give us some thoughts on what your experience is like at the, at the summit. Granted that you came there to try to capture the, you know, some of the images from it, but you were also in it. So you cannot just film it and not feel it.
- [51:12]
Sean Fee
Yeah, of course. So, so by that point the, the idea was evolving and, and I was, I made the trip out there to your summit and, and it was kind of in my mind, I was thinking, let's just go out there and check it out, basically see what this is all about. Because I had heard so much at this point. And I was, you know, thinking I could just do a piece about. I could try and do a piece about work and represent, you know, his work, but there's so much more to it. So the trip was kind of necessary. And I, like I said, I've been to a few, you know, horse expos and different things like this, but this was something completely different. And I was, you know, very warmly welcomed by you and your family, and it's a beautiful part of the world. But then going in to listen to these various people giving their. Their Tik toks, as you call them. What. What does the acronym stand for again?
- [52:36]
Warwick Schiller
Inspire, Connect, tic.
- [52:39]
Sean Fee
Right. And. And just the diversity of backgrounds. And it was. I had to put down my camera and just be there and listen. And I went. And the hearthead thing, I went from this approach where I was going to intellectualize and subjectively take in the information and try analyze what kind of a film this could be, that just completely dissolved instantly. And I felt my chest physically opening up and a warm feeling developing. And it brought me to tears. Like, within 10 minutes of sitting in the audience, I was bawling. Not only because of what was being shared by the presenter, but because of the experience, the collective experience from everyone there, because they were all there for the same reason. Because they. They have this desire. They have this desire to look deeper and to share authentically and reconnect with some of the more meaningful stuff in regards to being human and being on this planet. So I had to. I had to really, like, step back and, you know, rub everything out and start again with how I thought this film could be or would be. And I was really fortunate to have a series of very interesting conversations with people who were there. And we could do some. We could capture some stuff with a couple of very special guests and develop the ideas. And I'm still not 100% sure where this is going, but I know that the feeling will guide us and that giving the confidence to give in to the power of the feeling is scary. But it's also necessary to tell this story properly.
- [55:11]
Warwick Schiller
You know, after the. The summit in England last year, that on the Sunday afternoon at just the summit finished, and we, you know, we locked up the theater and I walked out the front and there was someone there and we were. I was walking back to the hotel and this lady was walking back to the hotel too, and she said, so where. Where are you going with all this? And I'd heard a saying years before that I thought was great, but I'd never had a chance to use it and I got to use it in that moment. And the saying is, I don't know where we're going, but I know how we're going to get there. And that's kind of like where you are with this film, I think, like, we know how we're going to get there, we just don't know where it's going to take us.
- [55:56]
Sean Fee
Yeah, definitely. But just. It feels, it feels full. It feels full of, of life and excitement and exactly what I want to cultivate in my life and the life of my family. So, yeah, I mean, like you said, we have a core team and Donagh is part of our core team. And she was one of the people I was lucky enough to meet. And the first time I met her properly, I was kind of wandering around in the break, a lunch break and kind of out of body experience, and she was with a couple of other women and Jordana was one of them and she was like, come for lunch with us. And, and so we, we got talking and I, I told, I shared the feeling I was having, which was I think that my, my friend Sage, this horse brought me to this place and they were all like, yeah, it makes perfect sense. I was like, what. What do you mean? Doesn't make any sense? But yeah, to them it all made a lot of sense. And I think just being open and humble and authentic with her sparked her interest in the project and so we're lucky enough to have her involved.
- [57:32]
Warwick Schiller
Yeah, she's. She's an amazing human. See, so Jordana also is going to be involved. She's going to bring the Native American indigenous wisdom type thing as well as. Yeah, as well as the horse wisdom stuff too. And then of course, we have the amazing Emily K's daughter, who I think, I think her podcast episode may have been the most downloaded episode of. I think we're up to 180 something episodes now, and I think Emily's might be the most downloaded one. And she was episode 115 and it was almost like we had to have 114 episodes before that for people to be ready to embrace the way she operates in the world.
- [58:24]
Sean Fee
Yeah, it's amazing listening to her speak. She's very. The. The ability to put words to what she's experiencing the way that she does is very difficult. It's almost like there's no single word for what she's trying to describe, but the combination of words that she uses represents this picture and it's, it's really fascinating stuff. Because she's. I have a feeling she's living in that other place and has been most of her, probably her whole life. And she's bringing back messages every time she speaks. That's how it feels to me.
- [59:17]
Warwick Schiller
And when she does, when she speaks, she speaks so simply. It's not like she's speaking in complicated terms, but it's just like pure sage wisdom, like she will say something. And like I said, it's not complicated, but when it's very simple, but it's very profound and you kind of got to stare at the wall for a little while.
- [59:44]
Sean Fee
Yeah.
- [59:45]
Warwick Schiller
So let's get back to the story of you. You know, this was going to be a short film. Probably initially it was. What are those little one. The short ones you make like 15 minutes, 20 minutes, something like that?
- [59:57]
Sean Fee
Yeah, 10 to 15 minutes.
- [59:59]
Warwick Schiller
And now it's. Now it's turned into where you're like, you want to make this a full blown feature, feature documentary and tell us more about your. And I imagine probably coming to the summit had something to do with that, too. But what was your. What was your thought process when you're like, I don't know if I want to do this in 10 or 15 minutes? I think we need to go a bit deeper.
- [60:33]
Sean Fee
Well, a lot of that came through listening to your podcast and hearing all these amazing stories. And Emily's and Jordana's were two of the episodes that really got me. So I think there's something very special about this format, as well as the format of film, of course. But when people are allowed to just have a conversation and express themselves and not hold back, feel free, I think I just realized this is impossible to squish into a short form thing. We need time. We need time to hear the backstory, hear a little bit of the history, where they came from and how that informs what they're doing today. Because it's a combination of the past, the present, and the future that makes us who we are. And all of these people in one film will do something unexpected. That's part of it, but it also. They all align in my imagination in a way because they're. They're holding something very, very powerful and their message is very clear. And I'm. I'm deeply humbled and honored to be able to tell all of your stories and see what comes of this.
- [62:34]
Warwick Schiller
You know, getting back to the, to the summit last year, you know, that you got to experience. There's something you just said in one of those sentences right there that made me think of the summit to where, you know, we've never, ever told anybody what they should talk about when they do their TikTok. And Robin has organized the order. They go in not knowing what they're going to talk about. And it's, you know, some people are like, they're morning people, some people, they'd rather go in the afternoon. So she kind of organizes it that way. But you got to see it last year, and that's how every summit has worked. It's almost like you knew exactly what they're going to talk about. They all talked about what they're going to talk about, and then we put them in a certain order just to do it. And like, you know, last year, Shalon Harkin, she was the last speaker, and she basically tied a bow in everything that everybody talked about for the last three days without knowing what they were going to talk about. And, you know, you. You mentioned something about such a broad range of people. What. One of the coolest moments I thought at the summit last year was when Brendan O'Reilly was on stage talking. So Brendan O'Reilly is a former UFC fighter. Okay. Who's, you know, he's almost like a Marcus Aurelius, like a warrior, philosopher type dude, you know, but he's on stage talking about UFC fighting. And down the back of the room, I was standing at the back of the room, and off to my left, Shalon Hakan, the mystic poet, was standing there watching, and what he was saying, I actually, I got my phone out and videoed it. Her head was just nodding up and down like it was going to fall off her neck. And I thought, okay, we've got a. We've got someone who downloads mystic poetry from the ether, watching a guy who's a former UFC fighter. And she's nodding her head so much, her head's gonna roll off. And I thought, that's what sort of a circus we've got going on here.
- [64:48]
Sean Fee
Yeah, it was amazing, but also not, you know, they're not so different in the end.
- [64:57]
Warwick Schiller
That's the thing. They're not different. They're all talking about the same thing. And one's a mystic poet and one's a UFC fighter, you know, and everybody in between.
- [65:08]
Sean Fee
Yeah, and. And as Jordana would say, the horses brought us there.
- [65:18]
Warwick Schiller
Yeah. Well, you know, I don't know if you've seen the footage of Emily's tick tock at the. The summit in England last year, but she started out with a quote from the Islamic scriptures, and she read it, and it said something about our you know, our destiny's tied into the forelock of a horse or something. Something, something. Anyway, then she. She reads that out and then she pauses and she said, so, like the podcast, we started out with horses and we ended up with God. And it was like, boom. That was the start of her TikTok. And it was like the room was just absolutely silent. Like. Yeah, it was amazing.
- [66:03]
Sean Fee
It is amazing. I mean, I think some people would have issues with understanding what she really means with that, because the word God has so many connotations depending on who you are, what your belief system is. And so it. It definitely, even. Even myself, it took me a second to, oh, okay, I understand what she's talking about, but it. It's. I think it's important to. To understand. I. I mean, you would have to ask her, but I have a feeling she's not talking about one religion's idea of God or another. She's. She's talking about this universal thing that exists in all of us, in all of nature, everywhere at the same time, has and always will, which she seems to live in a deep connection with, and all living beings seem to as well. So this is. This is the portal where we can deepen our communication with the natural world. So when we tap into that idea of God.
- [67:33]
Warwick Schiller
Yeah, most certainly. So let's back up a bit with the Sean Fee story. What. What led you to. To doing what you're doing, like the. The filmmaking stuff. What was your. What was your path to being interested in that?
- [67:52]
Sean Fee
That's a good question. So where do I start? I think I would have to start by saying I was very lucky to have parents that consistently told me that I can do anything I set my mind to. To be honest, I think that made all the difference. And then on top of that, being allowed to go to this wonderful school which promoted creativity, being a very sensitive person, not terribly good with academic stuff, and they call it dyslexia. Being heavily dyslexic. So finding my strength in more of the creative topics was clear from a young age. Creative, and those are my strengths. And then the harsh reality that the world is not an easy place to make money as a creative person and working on building sites. My dad is a carpenter, and so I knew what a hard day's work was, and I also knew that I would love to not have to do that for the rest of my life. And there was so much other stuff that I could be doing, but I just didn't put the pieces together until I was in my early 20s. And I had a very clear vision. One day when I was off, I dropped out of college and gone traveling with my Australian friend. And we were in Byron Bay at the most easterly tip of the continent one night, sleeping rough. And I suddenly just realized from one moment to the next that storytelling was the thing I wanted to do with my life. And it all kind of made sense because I had always loved to tell stories, and I had always loved the medium of film and had been making films actually since I was a teenager, making skateboard films with my friends, my brother, and borrowing people's cameras to be creative and capture movement. So it just made sense and it clicked. And, and I've been chasing that dream ever since. And it took a while. It took a while, you know, I, I, I had to continue working construction to put myself through college and learn all this stuff. And I, again, I dropped out before I finished.
- [70:59]
Warwick Schiller
What were you, what were you studying?
- [71:00]
Sean Fee
I had all the film classes they had to offer.
- [71:06]
Warwick Schiller
Where, where was this after that point?
- [71:08]
Sean Fee
That was in San Francisco. So after traveling, I went back and I was like, all right, this is what I'm gonna do. So I, I worked construction and, and, and like I said, went to the City College of San Francisco, the only school I could find forward. And they had fantastic programs. And I just learned, just absorbed, accepting all the information they had to offer on all these topics. Film is a very diverse. It has a diverse set of skills you have to master. And understanding all of them, at least at a base level, is really important before you start. So I did that, and then I dropped out because I was like, well, I just want to start doing this. So I continued to work, just make films. My free time with the money I saved up, buy pieces of gear and, and I just wanted to be able to do it on my own. And that approach has kind of persisted throughout my career till today and enabled me to do projects like this because I can get up and go and do stuff. And I find that really empowering and important because the rest of the work that I do is a bit more, you know, clunky. There's a lot of other people involved. And so you're not running on your own schedule. Yeah.
- [72:47]
Warwick Schiller
So you're talking about the advertising world.
- [72:50]
Sean Fee
That's right.
- [72:51]
Warwick Schiller
So what sorts of, what sorts of ads do you make? So these are, these are, are these ads for, like, tv? Is there any print ads? They're all action, you know, film it.
- [73:15]
Sean Fee
I always struggle with knowing where to start with these questions, because I think I would have to start with meeting my wife, my now wife and, and that causing me to move to Switzerland and we were working on a job together. Very amazing opportunity to make a film for a festival, cultural festival in Switzerland. This came through my good friend who's. Who I talked about earlier, who I went to Turkey with. So the stars aligned and we met on set of this film and I, after knowing her for a couple of weeks, I, I very naively told her that I'd had this powerful dream where we had children together and she thought I was completely crazy.
- [74:20]
Warwick Schiller
I was going to say, did that scare her off?
- [74:24]
Sean Fee
Almost, Almost. But then, you know, five, six years later, the image of these children in that dream look remarkably like the children we now have. So I don't know which, I don't know how that comes about, but that was, that was good enough for me. And she, she's amazing. So we've. In the last 13, 14 years, we've established a film and now also a photography production company in Zurich. And so we produce all sorts of content, mostly until recently, mostly commercial advertising for all sorts of brands. But we made a clear decision to basically steer it in a direction where we didn't find ourselves working for companies that we could stand behind 100%. So that was very important to both of us. And, and in my work, I think it became critical that I could get out of bed and work for companies that were doing. You're selling a product in the end of the day or an experience and I can, I. There's certain things I cannot support with my beliefs. So fast food and, you know, sugary drinks, stuff like that.
- [76:13]
Warwick Schiller
Do you find that. When did you find that? When you made that conscious decision that we are not going, we don't want to do what we do for companies we don't align with. Did you find. I imagine there's probably one or two scenarios there that works hard to come by. Or the opposite scenario where you are now in flow with the energy of the universe and oh, there the jobs just showed up. Was it one of those two options?
- [76:49]
Sean Fee
Yes. I think the, the scary part is making the decision, knowing that, you know, you have small children, you have bills to pay, and most of the work comes from certain types of clients. So how are we going to make it work if we make this decision? But then following your intuition and acting on the impulse to do what's right according to you has always paid off and it has always brought us into a position that is so much better than we could ever have dreamed of.
- [77:38]
Warwick Schiller
The Other day on Facebook, I shared a roomy quote that said, as you start to walk on the way, the way appears. Clarity doesn't come before action. It comes from action. It's almost like you made the decision that we are only going to create content for a certain type of company, and then the way appears.
- [78:09]
Sean Fee
Yeah, I think it just ties into trying to be. Trying to make decisions consciously and trying to not get sucked into the vortex of, you know, like we were talking about earlier with mainstream media and these. All these narratives, the energy that goes into stuff that actually I don't care for and. And steering. Trying to keep steering away from that to. To. To drive my. My path. The path that I want to go. That's the direction I want to go. It's. It's increasingly difficult with all of the distractions we have around us, but I think that's really one of the messages and something that I feel very called to do my best at.
- [79:13]
Warwick Schiller
You know, what I might do. Normally I send out some questions to my guests and have them choose some ahead of time. I didn't do that with you, but I might just ask you some off the top of my head. And for an artistic, creative person like you imagine, you read quite a bit. Or do you. Do you read much?
- [79:40]
Sean Fee
You know, I. I struggled with reading until I was in my 20s. It. It was actually hard for me to hold my attention, so I preferred to watch films or listen to stories. The podcast didn't really exist back then, so I do. I've. I've gotten much better. And. And starting BY early, like, mid-20s, I would say I started reading much, much more.
- [80:17]
Warwick Schiller
Yeah, so you had lived. You've lived in a number of places, and, you know, the last place you lived was in Zurich. What. What led you guys to. To pick Mallorca, a small island off the coast of Spain, to move to?
- [80:36]
Sean Fee
Yeah, a few different reasons. I think we as a family were ready for a change, and it's really nice that it happened like that, that it wasn't just one of us. I fell in love with surfing when I was a teenager, and so I have spent most of my life thinking about where I can serif next and living in Zurich, which, you know, Switzerland is a landlocked country. The opportunities became a flight away, and so we had been searching for a place to relocate, with an ocean being nearby being one of the parameters, and just my wife and I wanting to experience something different for ourselves, but also for our children and offer them a childhood where they could really have everything that we always dreamed our children could have with the climate and the beaches and the nature and the school. And so here, after looking, took us three or four years to find out that this was the place we wanted to go. It really worked out very well. I crossed it off the list to begin with because I didn't believe that Mallorca would have waves you could surf. But it turns out there are not, you know, world class waves. But every couple weeks they definitely have waves here, except for in the summer.
- [82:39]
Warwick Schiller
So which, what, so what, what is that sea?
- [82:44]
Sean Fee
Is that the Mediterranean?
- [82:47]
Warwick Schiller
So what is the Mediterranean?
- [82:48]
Sean Fee
Right in the Mediterranean.
- [82:51]
Warwick Schiller
And imagine the. Do the waves come from on the eastern side?
- [82:58]
Sean Fee
That's what I would have thought. But the waves actually come. Yeah, the eastern side. Exactly, exactly. I thought the west, the west coast of Europe is where all the waves are, but actually it's the east here.
- [83:16]
Warwick Schiller
And so what's Mallorca like? So it's off the coast of Spain, but it's almost directly above the top of Africa. And that would be. What's that below you? Is it Morocco below you?
- [83:27]
Sean Fee
Yeah, kind of, yeah. North Africa. And it's kind of right in the middle. It's a beautiful island. It's big enough that it doesn't feel like, you know, you don't get island fever. There's big mountains and I didn't expect the mountains to be as big as they are, which also helps with the feeling of space. It's very hot right now. We're in the summer, you know, middle of summer. Literally it's 30, 35 degrees. And there's. It has interesting culture and history. The people we interact with the most are actually expats who have all moved here for similar reasons. And so we found a very close and wonderful community through the, the school that we send our children to is. But it's, it's a great place to live.
- [84:39]
Warwick Schiller
Is it, is it very Spanish or is it, you know, like I said, it's just, you know, it's just above north, North Africa there. Is it, does it have much influence from down there or is it mostly kind of a Spanish type place?
- [84:54]
Sean Fee
It's a bit of a mix, yeah. I need to do more research into the history, but you definitely have influences, you know, with the food and the culture from all around. And I think the Moors were definitely here for a bit. So you have all these different influences similar to, you know, the south of Spain or Portugal and they. Yeah, yeah, they have a rich history. But I, I really have to do some more research before I talk about it.
- [85:37]
Warwick Schiller
So it's probably a bit like Morocco, though. I've been to Morocco and you know, Morocco is, is, you know, it's where Europe meets the Middle east meets Africa. And it's a mixture of all those and like with the Moorish influence in Mallorca. Imagine it's. It's got a little bit of that going on too, and then all the expats as well.
- [85:57]
Sean Fee
Yeah. So, yeah.
- [86:00]
Warwick Schiller
So, Sean, let's get back to this rekindle documentary. We've kind of mentioned before that Emily Casedot is going to be a part of it, bringing that. Whatever it is, that knowledge from higher powers, that earth wisdom, whatever it is she's got going on there, she's going to be a part of it. Jordana Anawalt is going to be featured in it as well. And we're planning on going to. Actually, you and I are going to meet up in Sweden in August and go to Emily's place in Sweden and do some filming for that. What are your thoughts on that? I just can't wait to see Emily in her natural habitat.
- [86:49]
Sean Fee
Exactly. Yeah. I think that's the, that's the big difference between the podcast and the film that we're making is that you get to visually experience where these people are, the animals and the human beings they're interacting with and the landscape. I think this is so important when you're talking about nature. I'm really excited for all of it. But to go up to see Emily in August will be amazing.
- [87:27]
Warwick Schiller
And imagine, you know, as a filmmaker, you won't be on the outside of that. You'll have to experience it. Because I think she'll, you know, she runs a. What would you call that? A school for. What does she call it? Non hierarchical interspecies communication or inter being. Maybe it's, maybe it's non hierarchical interspecies into being. And I'm sure we won't just be observers of that. I'm sure she'll have us being involved in that, which will be. And yes, it's going to actually fascinating to see what she, what exactly she does there. And then Jordana will probably go up to Bend, Oregon, to Jordana, where she manages a herd of mustangs. I'm not exactly sure how that whole thing works, but we're going to go visit Jordana and then who are the other key players in the, in the documentary? Dr. Steven Peters. He's going to bring not only the scientific part, he's not just going to bring this science, but he also has become very. I know spiritual is the word, but let's go with that one. You know, it was interesting when I first had him on the podcast. I was going to have him on the podcast because he's the brains. Horse. Brain science guy sort of thing. But we had some phone conversations before he was on the podcast, and I knew right then, like, oh, this dude's deep. But he said, you know, normally when he teaches and presents places, he's the science guy, so he can only talk about stuff. He can actually back up with science. And then when he came on the podcast, he got to talk about things that he normally doesn't get to talk about that he can't necessarily back up with science, but has. Has experienced as a. As a lived reality sort of thing. And then I just had him back on the podcast recently because now he's really down the rabbit hole. So I think he's going to be a great addition to the. To the documentary as well.
- [90:02]
Sean Fee
Definitely. And I think all of these lived experiences is what brings people really into the story when you have someone who is changing their own mind, literally. As a neuroscientist, he understands the function of the brain, and I find that an important and fascinating connection to make to this story because not only is he willing to get on board with these ideas, but he's doing his best to represent that in the scientific community. And I don't think that's an easy job.
- [90:51]
Warwick Schiller
Yeah, he's just written or just released a book on what he calls neuropoetry, which is. And he says it, you know, it takes you out of your head and puts you in your heart. And the poetry sent me a copy of it and the poetry in it. Yeah, it's. It's amazing. It does. It's a somatic experience reading his poetry. But what's really interesting, at the end of some of the poems, he actually goes back into science mode and tells you what chemicals in your body that particular poem may have brought up, which is fascinating. And then he has a poem on grief in there, which is. Yeah, it's an experience to read that poem. But then at the end of that, he actually explains what. What hormones your body secretes when it's in grief. Like, it's. It's fascinating because he's. He's the. He's, you know, he ties in the. The science and the spiritual.
- [91:59]
Sean Fee
So who else have we got?
- [92:01]
Warwick Schiller
And another one that probably is going to tie in, you know, kind of the science and the spiritual is. Is Dr. Jessica White Plume so we're going to go visit her at some point in time in North Dakota on the reservation. And for you guys who haven't listened to her podcast, she grew up on the reservation in North Dakota, left the reservation, went to college in Florida, got a. I think she has a PhD in psychology, and then came back to the reservation. And now she helps with the youth program on the reservation. And very still very connected to her indigenous roots. And I think, you know, her. Her knowledge of. Of psychiatry, plus her connection to. Her strong connection to indigenous roots. Not only is that going to be a very, I think, like, informative part of the movie, but I just can't wait to see, like, the images that you. You can capture there in the reservation. They have herds of buffalo, bison, we should call them. Yeah, I. I don't. I. I can't say enough about Jessica. She's just an amazing human being.
- [93:21]
Sean Fee
It brings up a very interesting and important point for me, which is with this film, I. I don't want to steer people or be, you know, biased. I just need to go and explore and learn for myself. And with all of these people, this. What I'm seeing is that they're bridging gaps. They're bridging gaps between traditional practices and more. How would you say, in more wise, natural perspectives. And I think that's something quite unique about the time we're living in. Is that all science, philosophy, wisdom, Indigenous wisdom? I think all these things are not as different as they're made out to be. I think they can work together to give us a really good and true picture of what we're doing here, who we are, and how we can live on this planet in a good way.
- [94:48]
Warwick Schiller
You know, I think that the title that you've chosen for this documentary is perfect for that because it almost rekindles our understanding of the fact that everything is connected. Kind of bringing all these things together to point out how similar they are, not how opposed or distant they are.
- [95:10]
Sean Fee
Exactly. Who else have we got? We're gonna keep the list open. But yourself, Roy, you're an important person to mention in this film because I think learning people's backstory and how they got to where they are today is very helpful. In when you watch a film and someone talks about a certain stage in their life, that resonates with your story, that really helps you empathize and invest yourself in whatever story it is. And I think this is a really powerful part of the story that you're able to tell. So I'm really, really looking forward to connecting the dots and interviewing you in exchange.
- [96:16]
Warwick Schiller
Yeah, I feel like you said joining the dots. I just feel like I'm a dot joiner. I feel like I don't know just how my life has turned out. That, you know, especially like the podcast, just the people that I came across that I was intrigued by and not necessarily thinking that all of these guests had something in common, but they all, I don't know, they all seem to fascinate me. But then, like, you know, like you've seen at the summit, you get them all together and they're all basically talking about the same, the same thing. So, yeah, I guess I'm a part of the, the thing, but I'm more of the, the dot jointed than, than the dots themselves.
- [97:05]
Sean Fee
Yeah, but I think that that makes it even more fascinating, in my opinion, because you're, you're following your intuition and your intuition is based on a list of different things. But one of those things is.
- [97:26]
Warwick Schiller
What.
- [97:26]
Sean Fee
Was instilled in you as a young child. And I think that's the important part. Having children of our own, we understand the importance of early childhood. And so, yeah, I think it just adds to the tapestry of the greater picture.
- [97:49]
Warwick Schiller
Yeah, and that'll be an interesting part for me because, you know, you have, you have a perspective of yourself that, that's not necessarily everybody else's perspective. So it's going to be interesting to see, you know what, I don't know what conclusions you draw or just, just how you paint the picture because, you know, like I said, everybody has perspective of themselves. That, that, that's just their perspective and it might not be the perspective other people have, you know.
- [98:22]
Sean Fee
Yeah, I think I'll try not to draw my own conclusions too much, but rather present, let other people talk about you. That will be the best information we have available is the people who know you.
- [98:43]
Warwick Schiller
And like I said, that'll be interesting for me to watch too. But, yeah, so it's, yeah, we're, we're, we're very excited about this whole thing. It's, yeah, it's just taken. Kind of taken on a life of its own. You've got the, you've got the, the website up that talks a bit about it. So that, that website is Rekindle documentary and it's, you know, talks about the, it's got some, some of your amazing footage on there. And the big, like, the big title that comes up at the start says, if we've lost our way, could the horse lead us back? And this, you know, this documentary is not about horses, but horses have played just like the. The podcast isn't about horses, but horses of kind of maybe common thread that's led us all together. So then on your website here, there's the essence of the film. Then it shows the. Has the mission, mission statement, which I read out in the introduction. Then it goes into talking a little about me. And then it goes and has the teaser that you made when you were here last year for the summit. Then it goes into some of our key contributors, and there's some amazing footage of both Jordana and Emily there. And once again, Emily's wisdom that you captured, even the way she talks, she.
- [100:16]
Sean Fee
Has a very.
- [100:20]
Warwick Schiller
Measured phrasing that I think makes what she says even more meaningful.
- [100:29]
Sean Fee
Definitely. I experienced that firsthand. And it was. It was hard at first to know what we should do together because Jordana was more clear about her message and how she wanted to portray it, but with only. She just said, well, I'm here. And I said, okay, well, let's go for a walk. So we just took a walk on your property, and we came across this tree, which has become quite an infamous tree by this point. It's an old oak tree, which was. I had seen the day before. You guys had showed me around already been amazed with this. This kind of looked like a completely dead tree peppered with holes from woodpeckers storing their nuts, the acorns. And when I passed that tree with her, she just stopped and she said, this is. This is the spot. You know, this is what I want to talk about. I said, okay. And so if you want to hear what she had to say about that tree, you can already see that. That clip on the. On the website. And that was just very spontaneous. That's just how she is. And the. The coherency of her message in that moment, nothing was planned. That was. That's the magic that you sometimes get to live when you're. You're falling. People are making stories like this.
- [102:10]
Warwick Schiller
Yes, she. Yes, it's very spontaneous. And like I said, that's why I said before, I'm so excited to go to Sweden and actually be in the presence of her when she does the thing that she does, you know?
- [102:25]
Sean Fee
Yes. This balancing act, you have to be very careful with certain, with everyone actually not making. Making them feel comfortable. I think that's. That's one of the big skills, big important skills that you have to learn making documentaries because you, you know, you don't get the result you're looking for if you come with a big Crew of people and, you know, bright lights and microphone in your face. You have to be careful, considerate. And I think finding that way with all of these contributors is going to be very interesting.
- [103:13]
Warwick Schiller
Yeah. And I think by the time we get to Emily's place in Sweden, I just. I noticed a difference in Emily from the. The summit in. Because she was at the summit in England and the summit here, I think she is becoming more comfortable maybe sharing the way she views the world. I feel like she might be more aware of her role, but. Yeah, I just felt like she was, you know, her going on stage at the summit in England was, you know, she's not a. She's not a standing in front of people, talking type person, but she's kind of. Yeah, I think she's kind of growing into Accept. Yeah. Accepting it and kind of.
- [104:09]
Sean Fee
Or. Or accepted her fate.
- [104:10]
Warwick Schiller
Accepted her fate as a. As a sage. Yes. Yeah. So, yeah, gonna be pretty exciting.
- [104:20]
Sean Fee
I think that's another wonderful part of this podcast is, you know, you're giving a platform to many people who. It would be hard to gather all of those people in one place before this podcast started. And it's a. It's an abundantly rich world of information that you can gather when you listen to these podcasts. And. And I'm. I'm incredibly grateful for it. So, yeah, unlikely candidates. Maybe. Maybe they're the people who, you know, aren't looking for it, but should be given the opportunity to have their voices be heard.
- [105:14]
Warwick Schiller
You know, that's. I've had. I've had a number of people say, why don't you get this famous person on the podcast, one of. I'll tell you what, one person I've had a lot of people say you should get on the podcast is Brene Brown. I'm a huge Brene Brown fan. But the thing about Brene Brown is everybody knows who she is, and I don't think I could get her to say anything she hasn't said 100 times before. And I really like to. To find people like Emily who no one knows of, but they have a message the world needs to hear. I don't think I need to get, you know, someone like Brene Brown to say the same thing she said a million times, because she's very accessible for people. I'd really love to get people on here that have an amazing message that no one's ever heard of before. And without being on the podcast, someone might. Might not hear that. That message, you know, like, as far as. Like someone like Brene Brown, there's the, there's kind of the, you know, the ego part of it, like, oh, that'd be cool if I had Renee Brown on my podcast. But I, I've kind of got beyond. Probably initially it would have been, I'd have been like, yeah, I want to get Renee Brown because she's Brene Brown. But it's kind of got beyond that. And like I said, yeah, people like, people like Emily who, otherwise people would not hear what she has to say. And I feel like those are the sorts of people I like to have on the podcast.
- [106:42]
Sean Fee
Totally. And I think the talent you're exhibiting for having that radar and using that part of your lifestyle where you're exposed to all these different people and you can just detect, oh, this person's got something to say and, and giving them. Now you have this platform. I think that's, that's such a, that's one of the really big benefits of modern technology. There's a lot of downsides to modern technology, but this is one of the big upsides that we can connect like this.
- [107:23]
Warwick Schiller
Yeah, you can get like minded people to connect. You know, think about before Internet, there were these people who had these, this way of looking at the world that didn't know there were other people out there that had this way, looking at the world. And you know, like, like I said, you've experienced the energy of the podcast summit where you get a group of those people together in the same room. The energy is, is amazing. And then, you know, this, this documentary film, maybe it'll, it can share these ideas with a, with a bigger audience who almost start coming together too.
- [108:05]
Sean Fee
Yeah. And it's not an easy thing to convince someone to adapt their life or change their ways. You can't tell someone what to do, basically. But when you offer a view into a world, which this podcast does or the film hopefully will do, I think then it's just a matter of trying it for yourself. And that's really the goal that I have for the film, is that a few people will watch it and think, okay, I'm gonna try that, you know, and then maybe connect with people around me in my community or go to one of the summits or experience it for yourself. I think that's where the magic really happens.
- [108:58]
Warwick Schiller
Yeah. I really think all you can do is plant a seed. And these days it's almost like everything I do, whether it's a podcast or whether I present at a horse expo or I do a clinic or whatever while I'm doing that particular thing Thing, there's an underlying thing that I'm trying to do. And what I'm always trying to do is I'm trying to present an idea that might bust someone's one of their long held truths. And if you can just bust one of someone's long held truths to where they go, I thought that was the truth and now it's just, I realize it's my perspective. Then you just walk away and you've opened the door for them to do the work themselves and kind of think, well, what other long held truths have I had that I thought was the truth? And it's not the truth, it's just the way I'm looking at things. And for me, I don't feel like I need to be there for that part. I just like to help open the door and then, you know, then they can get in all the rabbit holes they like themselves. And I really feel like this documentary might be able to, you know, the podcast has the audio aspect, but your, your eye for filmmaking and putting things together just, it adds a much richer quality to the whole, you know, the whole tapestry of this, this idea. So I'm, you know, I really can't wait to see what it looks like. In the end. It's going to be a long process, but for you guys listening, like I said, if you go to the rekindledocumentary.com website, you can take a look at some of the stuff that Sean has filmed for this and put together some of the little scissor reels there and then you too can be on the edge of your seat like I am waiting for this whole thing to come together.
- [110:55]
Sean Fee
Yeah, I'm there with you. I can't wait. And I'm extremely grateful for the opportunity. I think just that you're open to try it even though, you know, it's a challenge for you as well. And the to to meet people who are up for doing a project like this is, is really incredible. So thank you and thanks to your family.
- [111:22]
Warwick Schiller
Oh yeah, we're wait so thankful that you wanted to do this because I feel like it's, it's another way to, you know, share these ideas that we share here on the podcast. So we're all very excited about it and you know, it's almost like we all get to do our roles again. Tyler has his role, Robin has her role, I have my role sort of thing. So yeah, it's going to be fun. So Sean, thanks for, thanks for joining me on the podcast. It's been great chatting with you. Hearing more about the Rekindle documentary and also a little bit about your backstory of how you, how you, you came to view the world the way you view it and how you got to this, the filmmaking aspect of it. So thank you so much for joining me.
- [112:05]
Sean Fee
It's my pleasure. Thank you.
- [112:07]
Warwick Schiller
And you guys at home, thanks so much for joining us. And we will catch you on the next episode of the Journey on podcast.
- [112:15]
Sean Fee
Thanks for being a part of the Journey Journey on Podcast with Warwick Schiller. Warwick has over 850 full length training videos on his online video library@videos.warickschiller.com Be sure to follow Warrick on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram to see his latest training advice and insights.