coolhand1979 This is a truly awful, trashy documentary. Filmed in a conceited, MTV, cynical manner. It is more like some junk "reality TV show" than a professional documentary.Kate spends the first 45 mins of the film making each yoga practitioner look like a complete fraud / fool. She shows no respect for any Yoga that is not taught in India.... As though enlightenment is only available to those who travel to India and study with a particular guru.Complete BS - Kate Churchill is a Yoga snob - Yoga is about opening your heart to yourself and all beings. Her snobbishness is irresponsible when covering such a beautiful subject. There is magic here though, and it has NOTHING to do with the people BEHIND the camera. The magic is the interviews with the many and varied yogis, to be able to see these charismatic characters and feel humbled by there straight talking, no BS perspectives on life and happiness, was a true pleasure.However, Kate spends too little time with these Yogis, and far too much time with the complete pratt she chose to be her guinea-pig. He too is ignorant and slots neatly into the MTV, pop-culture, self absorbed, smug category. He is absolutely, positively, the very last person on earth that I would wish to have drinks and conversation with. He gives these snide little looks to the camera as if to say "yea, I know all this Yoga stuff is bullshit really, I'm cool, I'm hip". When in fact he's just revealing his own school-yard / peer-approval seeking lameness. Grow. Some. Balls.However, the film-maker's ignorance serves to frame the enlightenment of the Yogis beautifully... Their ignorance seems to provide the shadow while the Yogis provide the light... if you get my lingo :) A happy accident has happened unbeknown to Kate Churchill and I love it! Guerilla Yogis!!You could edit this movie down to 30 minutes, giving the entire screen-time to the interviewed Yogis, and you would have a very rewarding experience.The other 60 minutes are pure rot.

gokulrao Director Kate Churchill ends up with a non-story in her feature Enlighten Up! when her subject fails to experience the changes she had been expecting. Churchill might have taken Rosen directly to the impressive yoga potentates B.K.S. Iyengar in India, the reclusive Norman Allen in Hawaii (his advice to ease Rosen's way to spiritual ease is "F--k yourself"), and Sri Krishna Pattabhi Jois, a veritable lion of a guru whose ashtanga yoga method is practiced all over the world.The journalist's encounters – too brief, too arranged – with these men provide a glimpse of the possibility of true revelation. Sadly, Churchill gets miffed with Rosen's inability to receive yoga wisdom.And, apparently in the interests of providing the conflict element demanded in modern storytelling, the movie gets lost for a while as their relationship deteriorates.So, the director doesn't get the story she wanted and the viewer gets only a fleeting taste of several good yarns that she allowed to slip through her fingers.

jeffwink At first glance this film has a relatively straightforward premise: immerse an average American male in yoga and chronicle his transformation or lack thereof. This viewer had high hopes that something "enlightening" would result. Ultimately, the film fails to "enlighten" in nearly every respect. Ironically, it is Nick's honest appraisal of his experience and apparent rejection of yoga that is the film's bright spot. Nearly everything else is frustratingly muddled and disjointed. Here are some of the more troubling aspects of the film:First, for people unfamiliar with the prominent western teachers who are presented in this film, take what you see with a large "grain of salt." The manner in which the director has presented them is disturbing and disingenuous. In general, these people are serious, knowledgeable practitioners of yoga, the director portrays them as simple-minded, hyper-commercialized charlatans (although the ex-pro wrestler is probably presented accurately). It is not clear why the director has chosen to present these western teachers this way. Is she trying to undermine yoga as it is practiced in the West? If so, this can be done honestly without needing to resort to the artifice of creative editing.Second, the film's presentation of the various yoga traditions is so muddled that it borders on misrepresentation. The uninitiated will not walk away from this film with a basic understanding of the yoga tradition and its major principles. "Non-yogi" viewers of this film, presumably had at least some open-minded curiosity about yoga and some desire to see what it is all about. Sadly, these people are likely to walk away with the impression that there is no need to look any further. I wonder if this was the director's intention. Third, the director doesn't let Nick's experience unfold on its own. She repeatedly injects herself into the process in a way that is distracting. It seemed as if she had an agenda and was frustrated when Nick didn't do or think what she wanted. I was left wondering if she needed to have Nick's experience go a certain way so that she felt better about her own experience with yoga.Finally, afriendofyoga's comment is spot on. If you want to "enlighten up," just go to a yoga class and skip this movie. If you want a basic overview of the yoga tradition, go to wikipedia. Ultimately, this stilted view of a westerner's brush with yoga is a poor substitute for a personal exploration. Check it out yourself!

bottsford This is more a comment about a comment: The comment by "afriendofyoga" is full of weird projections onto this film. Almost every criticism "afriendofyoga" makes is tied up in his/her skewed assumptions about Kate Churchill's intentions. I saw "Enlighten Up!" yesterday -- Churchill clearly doesn't think she has any answers, the movie presents a wide variety of perspectives on the practice of yoga (some reverent, some practical, some skeptical), and the personal conflicts between Churchill and her "guinea pig" Nick Rosen are given a balanced and honest treatment. This isn't (and isn't meant to be) a conclusive statement about yoga, it's a snapshot of a personal experience. I found it more intriguing than the dozens of reverent beatific infomercials about the wonders of yoga.