I Am is a 2011 documentary film written, narrated, and directed by Tom Shadyac

Tom Shadyac

Thomas Peter "Tom" Shadyac is an American comedian, director, screenwriter, and producer. Shadyac, who was the youngest joke-writer ever for comedian Bob Hope, is widely known for writing and directing the films Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Nutty Professor, Liar Liar, Bruce Almighty, and the...

. The documentary explores Shadyac's personal journey after a 2007 bicycle accident, "the nature of humanity" and "world's ever-growing addiction to materialism." The film, shot with Shadyac and a team of four, contrasts sharply with Shadyac's previous comedic work.

Background

Shadyac had suffered post-concussion syndrome

Post-concussion syndrome

Post-concussion syndrome, also known as postconcussive syndrome or PCS, and historically called shell shock, is a set of symptoms that a person may experience for weeks, months, or occasionally up to a year or more after a concussion – a mild form of traumatic brain injury . PCS may also...

 after a 2007 bicycle accident in Virginia,
experiencing months of acute headaches and hyper-sensitivity to light and noise. The injury followed the cumulative effects of previous mild head injuries Shadyac had suffered surfing, mountain biking and playing basketball.

A 2011 New York Times article stated that: "the symptoms of a concussion [didn't] go away. Something as simple as a trip to the grocery store was painful for Shadyac, whose brain was unable to filter various stimuli. After medical treatments failed to help, he isolated himself completely, sleeping in his closet and walling the windows of his mobile home with black-out curtains. As his symptoms finally began to subside, the director wanted to share his inner quest in the way he knew best: through film." Shadyac likened the experience to Dante's Seventh Circle of Hell

Inferno (Dante)

Inferno is the first part of Dante Alighieri's 14th-century epic poem Divine Comedy. It is followed by Purgatorio and Paradiso. It is an allegory telling of the journey of Dante through what is largely the medieval concept of Hell, guided by the Roman poet Virgil. In the poem, Hell is depicted as...

.

Shadyac subsequently gave away his excess fortune, opening a homeless shelter in Charlottesville, Virginia

Charlottesville, Virginia

Charlottesville is an independent city geographically surrounded by but separate from Albemarle County in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States, and named after Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the queen consort of King George III of the United Kingdom.The official population estimate for...

 and making a key donation to Telluride, Colorado

Telluride, Colorado

The town of Telluride is the county seat and most populous town of San Miguel County in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Colorado. The town is a former silver mining camp on the San Miguel River in the western San Juan Mountains...

's effort to set aside a natural area at the town's entrance. He reoriented and simplified his life, sold his 17000 square feet (1,579.4 m²) Los Angeles mansion and moved into a trailer park

Trailer park

A trailer park is a semi-permanent or permanent area for mobile homes or travel trailers. The main reasons for living in such trailer parks are the often lower cost compared to other housing, and the ability to move to a new area more quickly and easily, for example when changing jobs to another...

 – albeit the exclusive Paradise Cove park in Malibu.

Film context

In the film, Shadyac conducts interviews with scientists, religious leaders, environmentalist

Environmentalist

An environmentalist broadly supports the goals of the environmental movement, "a political and ethical movement that seeks to improve and protect the quality of the natural environment through changes to environmentally harmful human activities"...

s and philosophers including Desmond Tutu

Desmond Tutu

Desmond Mpilo Tutu is a South African activist and retired Anglican bishop who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid...

, Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky

Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...

, Lynne McTaggart

Lynne McTaggart

Lynne McTaggart is an American journalist, author, publisher, lecturer, and spokesperson. According to her author profile, she is a spokesperson "on consciousness, the new physics, and the practices of conventional and alternative medicine"...

, Elisabet Sahtouris

Elisabet Sahtouris

Elisabet Sahtouris is a Greek-American evolutionary biologist, futurist, business consultant, event organizer and UN consultant on indigenous peoples...

, David Suzuki

David Suzuki

David Suzuki, CC, OBC is a Canadian academic, science broadcaster and environmental activist. Suzuki earned a Ph.D in zoology from the University of Chicago in 1961, and was a professor in the genetics department of the University of British Columbia from 1963 until his retirement in 2001...

, Howard Zinn

Howard Zinn

Howard Zinn was an American historian, academic, author, playwright, and social activist. Before and during his tenure as a political science professor at Boston University from 1964-88 he wrote more than 20 books, which included his best-selling and influential A People's History of the United...

, and Thom Hartmann

Thom Hartmann

Thom Hartmann is an American radio host, author, former psychotherapist and entrepreneur, and progressive political commentator. His nationally-syndicated radio show, The Thom Hartmann Program, airs in the United States and has 2.75 million listeners a week...

. The film asks two central questions: What’s Wrong With the World? and What Can We Do About it?. It is about "human connectedness, happiness, and the human spirit", and explores themes including Darwinism, Western mores, loneliness, the economy, and the drive to war. The documentary includes animated scenes explaining scientific concepts, as well as clips from the films Wall Street and It's a Wonderful Life

It's a Wonderful Life

It's a Wonderful Life is a 1946 American Christmas drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra and based on the short story "The Greatest Gift" written by Philip Van Doren Stern....

.

Reception

The L.A. Times said the film "was collection of sound bites that validate the filmmaker's point of view. What lifts the film above its dubious boilerplate assemblage of talking heads and archival images is Shadyac himself. With his gentle, self-mocking humor, he comes across as an exceptionally mellow, earnest and likable guy." Roger Ebert gave the film a negative review, stating that the "film is often absurd and never less than giddy with uplift, but that's not to say it's bad. I watched with an incredulous delight, and at the end, I liked Tom Shadyac quite a lot...he offers us this hopeful if somewhat undigested cut of his findings, in a film as watchable as a really good TV commercial, and just as deep. " Proceeds from the documentary go to the Foundation for I Am, which supports various charities.