Director Tom Shadyac Shifts From Almighty to Humble with ‘I Am’

Tom Shadyac’s first foray as a docu filmmaker appears to be lighting small fires on the U.S. film festival circuit and Mark Urman’s Paladin are looking to give more oxygen to what might be one of those inspiring, highly personalized account by the man who gave us a slew of Jim Carrey comedies (Bruce Almighty). Simply titled I Am and coming with the tagline “the shift is about to hit the fan”, the doc film represents a 180 in Shadyac’s personal life. Hitting the Hamptons Film Festival next week, Paladin is planning an eventual February release.

I AM recounts what happened to the filmmaker after a cycling accident left him incapacitated, possibly for good. Though he ultimately recovered, Shadyac emerged a changed man. Disillusioned with life on the A-list, he sold his house, moved to a mobile home community, and decided to start life anew. Armed with nothing but his innate curiosity and a camera crew, Shadyac embarks upon a journey to discover how he as an individual, and we as a race, can improve the way we live. Appearing on-screen as character, commentator, guide, and even, at times, guinea pig, Shadyac meets with a variety of thinkers and doers–remarkable men and women from the worlds of science, philosophy, and faith–including such luminaries as David Suzuki, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Lynne McTaggart, Ray Anderson, John Francis, Coleman Barks, and Marc Ian Barasch. An irrepressible Everyman who asks many questions but offers no easy answers, he takes the audience to places it has never been before, and presents even familiar phenomena in completely new and different ways.