Film Interview: SEX MAGIC Directors Jonathan Schell and Eric Liebman

FILM INTERVIEW: SEX MAGIC Directors Jonathan Schell and Eric Liebman

Vegas Outsider discusses the new investigative documentary "Sex Magic" with co-directors Jonathan Schell and Eric Liebman

Part sexual education film, part relationship drama, Jonathan Schell and Eric Liebman’s documentary Sex Magic explores the unexpected consequences of polyamory as a spiritual healer loses the one he loves and attempts to regain her by further engaging in the behavior that pushed her away. Dez Baba is a well-regarded, Tantric spiritual healer who explores his own spiritual development by means of sexual engagement with others. After suffering the loss of his longtime girlfriend Maya due to her inability to accept his polyamorous lifestyle, Dez sets out on a journey of self-discovery as he attempts to regain her love by engaging in “sex magic”. As he has intercourse with various new lovers in order to direct his orgasmic energy towards bringing Maya back, Schell and Liebman investigate the thin line between spirituality and betrayal that lie at the heart of this unique community.

Vegas Outsider: How did you first come up with the idea of shooting a documentary on this man and subject matter?

Jonathan Schell: Well it wasn’t actually our idea; Dez’s cousin is actually a guy Eric (Liebman) and I snowboard with. He had said to us “you both need to check out my cousin out in Sedona, he has quite a set up. You won’t believe it and he wants a documentary made on him”. Eric followed up on that, went out there, started shooting, and it turned out that Dez had hired us to make a documentary on tantra, particularly on how great tantra is, how it can help people and save the planet essentially. So we started making that film, had pursued it for about a year or so, exhausted the money that he had, and weren’t getting what he wanted because of the intimacy issues. People were afraid to go on camera, or they would go on camera but they’d talk and talk and talk their tantra speak, which is a whole other language really. We had essentially nothing to cut though to illuminate what they were actually talking about, so at that point Dez said “Ok, well I’ll go on camera”.

So he proceeded to appear on camera to perform his self-pleasuring ritual that he had mentioned to us before. I thought “ok I think I know what that means” but like most of the things they talked about, I wasn’t really sure because these practitioners couch everything in this certain spiritual context. Ultimately, the ceremony itself was what I expected but the interesting thing that came out of it was the information that Dez had recently been dumped by his longtime girlfriend and was trying to manifest her back I learned in the follow-up interview we did following the ritual. He was attempting to do this by channeling his orgasmic energy into a prayer to the divine, which is what he calls “sex magic”. So we had just discovered this concept of “sex magic”, Dez losing his girlfriend because he screws too many women so he then goes and screws more women essentially to get her back. We were like “Wow, that’s the movie we want to make”. At that point, we approached him and said, “We’re not getting the movie that you want, you’re out of money, let us take this over and make it our own so we can give this film a much broader appeal”. That was essentially the pitch we made to him and he consented.

VO: How was the process of shooting the film and finding a narrative for it since so much happens with Dez from his relationship with Maya, working with Kamala on the book and their dynamic, as well as the controversy with Jaiya?

JS: That was something we were definitely challenged by and struggled with for a long time as we were trying to make the film work. We really edited this film for three years, had it screened nearly every week to figure out our narrative. That whole process was a big chunk of work but out of it we had come up with title from talking with Dez after his self-pleasuring ritual. He used the phrase ‘manifesting Maya’ and I was like “wow, I like that as a title” and it really served to be the spine of the film. We’ve let that go as a title now but it was very, very helpful for me to focus the narrative on that spine. So that became our main focus since we had already shot so much that was tantra-related and knew that the tantra material would compete with this narrative so we honed back the tantra for tantra’s sake footage and only kept the stuff that was imperative about Dez, what he does, and his belief system as it relates back to tantra, i.e. how he uses it to attempt manifesting Maya back.

That thread became our main throughline; the other elements just came into Dez’s life and fell into the chronology of events that occurred around his pursuit of Maya. So the struggles he went through, the vacation to Hawaii, sleeping with this other couple and what that all entailed, and then the trouble with Jaiya, which was one of the big deciding factors to take the film on as our own because we had heard about this whole problem she had with Dez. We had become friends with her and she became this really interesting character who didn’t want to her issues with Dez but we essentially dug them out of her. There had been accusations about him being inappropriate and we felt that that may have been the narrative of the film, the idea that this tantric healer may be taking advantage of women. We had mentioned this to Dez and the amazing thing about him is that he’s so open to everything that he didn’t stop us, because he is all about truth so anything that may be lurking around him that is dark, he wants to shine a light on it.

VO: Dez was at a place where he would take on other lovers but let them know he was still essentially waiting for Maya to return, what did you think of that approach with these women since in a way he's saying they alone were not enough for him and did that ever cause any conflict?

JS: I was shocked when I shot the scene where he said that; when he said to Robin about her holding space for Maya’s return it reminded me of the Stephen Stills line “if you’re not with the one you love then love the one you’re with” but it’s love the one you’re with and do sex magic with them to get the one you want. What’s even more fascinating was when I did the follow-up interview with her, she started crying. I assumed she did so because it worked and she lost her lover and someone she is actually fell in love with but I don’t really think that was the case. That’s what many people would assume but I believe her when she says that this powerful experience they shared together really worked, not that she’s losing him. So just the concept of sex magic itself, I never really believed it would work.

It’s not that different than the idea of “The Secret” or the Buddhist “nam myoho renge kyo” where you pray for what you want but in Dez’s case it’s actually taking your highest energetic vibration and connecting that to God rather than just putting your hands together before sleep with no real energy behind it. That seems to make some kind of sense but actually believing it works or not was another matter. However, I was open to seeing what would happen and found it super interesting that he’s arguably doing what caused the problem to solve the problem and isn’t even aware of that irony.

VO: Given the film's end in regards to Maya, how is Dez now overall with his life and journey since the filming stopped?

Eric Liebman: I think Dez has essentially moved on from Maya but is still in the same place; he could easily do this again to someone else. He is aware to have seen what happened but whether he has incorporated that insight into his life but I don’t know if he is conscious enough to not do that to another person. He’s a creature of habit. His whole system is heavily about processing and knowing what the truth is and being aware. He is aware of what happened again but if that means he has genuinely moved on, I doubt that.

JS: His belief system is that when he has inner peace, meaning the balance between his inner feminine and inner masculine, his own yin and yang as it were, then the manifestation of his inner goddess will appear externally and everything will work. Within that, does he still believe in a polyamorous lifestyle and have his primary lover work within his lifestyle? I think so; we really tried to nail Dez down on that point and he hated it because he doesn’t want to be nailed down by those definitions. He just feels that it will all work when the inner peace is there. I think as well that over the years, by seeing the various cuts and the objectivity we brought to this project, that he is able to see himself much more clearly now than he was ever able to before.

To learn more about this film, go to www.ifcfilms.com