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Gurdjieff's Mission is the first documentary to detail Gurdjieff's unwavering struggle to fulfill his mission of establishing the ancient teaching of The Fourth Way in the West. Shot on site in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Constantinople, London, Paris and New York, the 80-minute color documentary follows Gurdjieff from his arrival in Russia in 1912 through to 1924.
Having finally established his Institute for the Harmonious Development in France, he risked all in a make-or-break gamble to take the teaching to America. For America, Gurdjieff believed, despite its "feverish existence" and obsession with "growing dollars," was a country which had "the largest percentage of beings in whose presences the possibility of acquiring Being is not entirely lost." Gurdjieff's Mission portrays Gurdjieff's enigmatic relationship with P. D. Ouspensky and the little known "St. Petersburg Conditions," his use of "divine acting," the warning to J. G. Bennett about "too much intellectual knowledge," and intensive work with A. R. Orage, renowned editor and friend of T. S. Eliot, George Bernard Shaw and Ezra Pound. The film vividly demonstrates Gurdjieff's warning to America of the rise and challenge of the East with footage recalling the 9/11 attack and its aftermath.
Wins GOLD SPECIAL JURY AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING EXCELLENCE at WorldFestIn 2002 WorldFest, the largest and most prestigious of the international film Festivals, received over 4,000 entries which were narrowed down to three entries to be awarded the Grand Prize. Gurdjieff's Mission was one of the three finalists. WorldFest, celebrating its 35th year in 2002, is the film festival at which such notable directors as Steven Spielberg, Ang Lee, Peter Weir and David Lynch won their first awards. The documentary category has always been especially strong with entries from PBS and the Discovery Channel. In 2001, The Endurance, the story of Earnest Shackleton's Antarctic exploration, won. Gurdjieff's Mission is the second in the film trilogy The Life and Significance of George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff. The first film, Gurdjieff in Egypt: The Origin of Esoteric Knowledge, won the Gold Award for Biography at WorldFest 2000. The third film, Gurdjieff's Legacy: Establishing The Teaching in the West won the Gold Special Jury Award for Outstanding Excellence at WorldFest 2003. We feel especially grateful at this continuing recognition because our great wish and aim is that it will further increase an appreciation of Mr. Gurdjieff and the teaching he brought at so great a personal sacrifice.
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