The I Am documentary film, created by former Hollywood movie director Tom Shadyac, came about as a result of a potentially life-threatening injury to Tom which caused him to ask the question "What do I want to say before I die?". That question prompted two more questions:

• What's wrong with our world?
• What can we do about it?

The obvious, superficial answers to the first question (for example, poverty, war, homelessness) are merely symptoms. Tom's objective was to dig deeper to try and discover the underlying, endemic problems.

In the film, Tom interviews a long list of authors, philosophers, historians, religious leaders, and others. Here's a list of his interviewees along with links to more information:

• David Suzuki, scientist, author, co-founder of the David Suzuki Foundation
• Lynne McTaggert, author, researcher, lecturer
• Dean Radin, senior scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences
• Thom Hartmann, author, radio talk show host
• Dacher Keltner, author, professor of psychology at UC Berkeley
• Noam Chomsky, professor emeritus of linguistics at MIT
• Howard Zinn, historian, playwright, activist
• John Francis, author, environmentalist
• Desmond Tutu, activist, retired archbishop, co-founder of The Desmond Tutu Peace Centre
• Coleman Banks, poet, author
• Daniel Quinn, author
• Ray Anderson, former CEO of Interface
• Mark Ian Barasch, author, activist
• Rollin McCraty, executive vice president and director of research at the Institute of HeartMath
• Elisabet Sahtouris, biologist, futurist
• Chris Jordan, photographer
• Marilyn Schiltz, anthropologist, researcher, writer, public speaker
• Richard Shadyac, father of Tom Shadyac, co-founder of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Here's a list of the ideas and concepts discussed in the documentary:

• Science, regarded as being the "truth", is sometimes incorrect (for example, the long-held "truth" that the world is flat, or that the earth is the center of the solar system).
• To help explain human behavior and the Universe in general, the concepts of how individual objects behave and the Darwinian concepts of competition and survival are important to consider.
• As humans, we are fundamentally different than machines.
• The world is not a machine, although we often perceive it that way.
• As humans, for the most part we think of ourselves as separate from everything and everybody else. This is especially true in Western civilization.
• There is, to a fairly large extent, a perceived need for humans to be "significant", sometimes at the expense of others.
• There is a fundamental "lie" that possessing more money and "stuff" results in greater happiness.
• The human drive to accumulate money and "stuff" is a psychological problem.
• At the heart of the problem is Man's separation from the natural world.
• What is the basic nature of Man? Is it to cooperate or dominate? Is it kingdom or democracy?
• In nature, cooperation is just as much a part of life as competition and "survival of the fittest".
• Humans have "mirror neurons" which allow us to feel sympathy and empathy towards others.
• Humans are born with a vagus nerve which is evidence that we are "wired" for a compassionate response to others.
• In most cultures, the heart is considered the center of the body, not the brain.
• The heart sends more information to the brain than the brain sends to the heart.
• When we serve others, we experience a feeling of deep contentment and ecstasy.
• Humans function best in a state of empathy, compassion, and love.
• The heart generates a magnetic field that extends outside of the body, and that field can be scientifically measured.
• The heart is the primary access point to the spirit / higher self.
• We are all part of a universal energy field.
• Human emotions create an energy field and affect other living things.
• We live in a participatory Universe and everything we do is changing it.
• Over 99% of human genes are identical to our nearest relatives (primates), and thousands of other human genes are identical to other living things such as dogs, cats, fish, birds, trees, etc.
• If you truly believe that we are somehow all connected, it will affect your behavior.
• Change occurs as a result of many small, individual behaviors and decisions that over time develop into a greater consciousness (for example, the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the demise of Apartheid).
• In nature, living things take only as many resources as they need, nothing more.
• There is no evidence that war is the result of some human need.
• Violence is not the only way to bring about change as evidenced by the accomplishments of people like Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Love has the power to save our world, especially love of our enemies and people who do wrong.
• In answer to the question of how to bring about change, the Dalai Lama stated "...critical thinking, followed by action.".
• In nature, living things take only as many resources as they need, nothing more.
• "Be the Change You Want to See".

In the documentary, the title "I Am" is offered up as a simple but appropriate answer to the first question "What's wrong with our world?".

As of this writing (January, 2015), the I Am documentary is available on Netflix.

For more information, go to the I Am documentary website.

Source:

Shadyac, Tom. (2010). I Am United States. Shady Acres.

More:

• David Suzuki | The Huffington Post
• Desmond Tutu | The Huffington Post
• Ray Anderson: The business logic of sustainability | TED
• Practicing 'Green Compassion': How Do You Stack Up? | The Huffington Post
• Consensus decision making in animals
• Biologists Study Evolution of Animal Cooperation | National Geographic
• Darwin: The Descent of Man
• Money Doesn't Make People Happy | Forbes
• Why Rich People Really Aren't Happier |The Motley Fool
• Entangled Particles Seem to Communicate Instantly—and Befuddle Scientists | Discover Magazine
• Farb, Peter. Man’s Rise to Civilization As Shown by the Indians of North America from Primeval Times to the Coming of the Industrial State. E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc. New York. 1968.