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10 questions for “10 Questions” director

Damon Solomos
The Commuter

Thursday, November 20, 2008

I recently had the pleasure to screen the film “10 Questions for the Dali Lama”, a documentary written, directed, and filmed by travel documentary filmmaker Rick Ray. The film was poignant, powerful, and a joy to watch. I had the further pleasure of interviewing the filmmaker after the film. Rick Ray is a man quick to laugh and with a sharp wit. I hope to see him back this way again. What follows is the interview.

What brought you up to LBCC? They have a travel documentary series up here on Sundays. They have numerous films and I think my agent called the college and said I was going to be up here with another film; ‘he’s also got this Dali Lama film. Would you be interested in it?’ They said ‘yes we would love to have you’, so it’s become this double event.

What is the primary idea you want people to take away from your film? I want them to understand who this man is. I did not make this film for hardcore Tibetan Buddhists. I did not make it for Tibetologists, or people who feel they know already, very deeply, who the Dali Lama is. I made it for people who have a notion who he is, but they want to learn more. They want to know who this figure is, who is on this earth right now, who is larger than life and who is an inspiration to millions. So that’s my purpose, I want people to walk away from this saying, ‘I didn’t know this man, I didn’t know the context of his compassion. Didn’t know what was really going on. I feel like I know him now.’ I think I have done that for a large number of people who would otherwise never see this film. People who see it on Netflix and go ‘I heard something about that.’ They write me emails and say ‘I ain’t never know nothing about that guy but man he’s great.’ That’s important.

The film has a particularly poignant scene about the prayer flags of Tibet; did you leave one while you were in the last Tibetan province where the old ways are still practiced? Ladoc. No, I didn’t leave a prayer flag. It’s not that common to string up prayer flags. They seem to already be there when you get there. I just sort of enjoyed them, that energy and the thought of the prayers that are written on there and the idea of the winds picking them up and carrying them. Today I string prayer flags on the antennas and cables around my house. I have got prayer flags hanging all the way across to the street. I constantly have to replace them, but it’s my way of remembering. I wanted to show in the film how the Tibetan people used to live. There are little pockets of that where it’s still preserved in Northern India and other places. To contrast that with what’s happening in China I thought was worthwhile.

When you speak of the Dali Lama, you speak with such reverence. Did that come out of your conversation with him? It started when I first heard him speak when I was a kid. My family wasn’t particularly oriented towards Buddhism, or even towards international issues. They were rather conservative. I would see this man on TV, so humbly dressed, living on 10 dollars a day, and speaking the truth to humanity from his heart, from a heart of compassion. He spoke to the truth within me and I thought: ‘who is he?’ I never had any thought that I would meet him or make a film about him. I just realized I was drawn to him. As I traveled I came to Buddhist places and I found them to be oases of peace and calm in chaotic countries. You can walk into a Buddhist temple and everyone would be sitting around, and no one would judge you. No one would try to convert you. They just kind of look, ‘Oh here you are. Come on in. No restrictions, bring your camera, talk to people.’ That was the kind of philosophical style in a religion that immediately resonated with me. So it wasn’t the meeting with him that triggered it. It was pre-existent for a long time. After meeting him it was magnified by his answers, his presence, his generosity, and his humor. He never fails to impress me.

Are you a practicing Buddhist? I am not. I am not a practicing Buddhist; I am not a practicing anything. I am really very cynical about religions. As I say in the film, I feel it’s kind of a draw as to what they have done in the world, especially fundamentalist religion or orthodoxy, where people take their religion so literally they would kill or die in the name of their god. I think sometimes the balance sheet doesn’t work in favor of religion. Although though I don’t practice it, I don’t see Buddhism as a religion. I see it as a philosophy. There is no god. There is no god acting upon us. It is more of a philosophy from within. You work on your own perfection and your own development. What you give out into the world, that’s what you get. For me, its almost not a religion, its philosophical.

If The President-elect came to you and said he is going to intervene on the Tibet issue and that he would follow your advice, what advice would you give him? I would say first of all, negotiate with the Chinese to allow the Dali Lama to come back. The Dali Lama could be China’s best friend if they would just trust enough to allow him to come back. You say ‘why?’ If he came back to China today, his people would not be restless at all. They would not be rioting in the streets for freedom or the preservation of their culture, because the Dali Lama has a calming influence everywhere he goes. His people look at him as a god. They look at him with such reverence that if he said, ‘you do not riot, do not commit acts of violence. Do not ask for independence from China, you retain Chinese citizenship but we have autonomy for our art, religion, and culture.’ The Chinese would find they have it all, but they are, at this moment, too afraid to even consider it. The International Campaign for Tibet has asked both Obama and McCain [about] their position on the issue. Both camps responded that China must engage the Dali Lama with the objective of allowing him to come back to his own, and to lead and inspire his people. That’s what I would advise. Is it achievable? That’s a whole other story.

Which of your Ten Questions to The Dali Lama Would you most like to ask to Obama? Isn’t it funny how Obama and Dali Lama rhyme? I think there is some kind of limerick. I would love to ask ten questions to Barrack Obama, such an articulate and obviously deep, thoughtful man. I think he is our Dali Lama, totally under a different circumstance, but it’s remarkable he is here with us and that he is our future leader; I hope for a long time. It’s remarkable that in our democracy we can elect a man of his caliber. He restores my faith in the country to correct its course. What would I ask him if I could ask him one of my ten questions? Well, I think I would ask him the same thing about when to use force. I think that he has been called out by the conservative movement; they feel like he is not a hawk. That he is someone that would negotiate without preconditions. I think they spun that a lot. The Dali Lama says in the movie that you need to sit down with your enemies, that you need to have more picnics. The Dali Lama says, ‘I think more festivals. More picnics.’ What he really means is less of these religious schools where you’re indoctrinated with people just like you. That’s common in the Middle East, especially Jerusalem.

Same Question, but what would you ask Gorge W. Bush? That’s very theoretical isn’t it? His regime is highly protective. Journalists wouldn’t be free to freely ask questions of him. He wouldn’t make himself available to people that weren’t hand picked ahead of time. But, in a theoretical world, my question for him would be, “If your philosophy is that government is worthless, it is bad, does that really mean you should go in and disassemble it completely and make it just a chaotic mess? Aren’t there parts of government that are worthwhile to keep?” Like the Dali Lama says, ‘some traditions are worthwhile to keep, and others we must change. Others, were done.’ What traditions should we keep, and what should we be done with? I guess, to narrow it down, that’s what I would ask Bush. I am sorry to say, but I think we have been in a very dark time over the last eight years. Very dark. I am so delighted to see this emerge. Just as I fear for the Dali Lama’s life, I fear for Barack Obama’s. He is such an amazing figure and he is so astonishing; I hope security is very good around him.

What would the title of your autobiography be? “Lonely Planet Moron: One Idiot’s Journey into Trouble Around the World, and How to Get out of Trouble by Lying Constantly.” No, I don’t know. I have had an interesting life. I have put on a backpack and I have been traveling for twenty-five years, and experiencing other cultures up close. You meet wacky people, you meet great people, and you meet inspirational people. What you almost never meet is boring on the road. You meet boredom at home amongst people who have failed to seek. I just get so excited every time I take to the road. I guess I would call it, “The Enigma of Arrival.” That’s what I would call my autobiography. Because every time you arrive in a new foreign place, there is a mystery to it that is ephemeral and only lasts a few weeks. Then you get used to that place, and that’s the experience of travel. Then coming back with your stories and your experiences, to your own home country and trying to bring the jewel back to people who essentially have not had that experience. So “The Enigma of Arrival and The Enema of Departure. That’s Customs.”

What film projects are you working on at the moment? I am pretty well immersed in a film about a California law. Down in California back in 1996, we legalized medical marijuana. It was a vote that 66% of Californians legalized it, voted in favor of it. It was formerly established and legalized and today there are dispensaries all over California run by people and they are being raided by the DEA. There has been a huge crack down on them. The story I am filming now, I have been doing it for years, and the story is this guy named Charlie Rich. He is a man who never had a traffic ticket, never broke a law, and he wanted to open a medical marijuana dispensary for people with AIDS and cancer and cancer pain. He did it all by the book, got the mayor, got the city, got the county, paid his taxes. A sheriff down in San Louis Obispo, who was running for re-election on a family platform, decided to make a campaign commercial by calling the feds on Charlie. He was busted and raided. He was put in a federal detainment center. Put on trial, which I followed, and he is about to be convicted of up to thirty years in prison because federally, marijuana is absolutely a class one drug on the equivalency of heroin or PCP. He has been charged like he was selling it in back allies. It’s an astonishing story to watch: an ordinary man who you could admire if you knew him, preparing to pack up his life and say good by to his kids, family, and friends and go to federal prison over something like this.

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