The Kindness Within: A Journey to Freedom was one of the Official Selections from the Portland Festival of Cinema, Animation & Technology’s 2024 festival that accepted the Filmmaker Mixer Podcast offer to review their work. This feature-length documentary follows Leon Logothetis, also known as “The Kindness Guy”, as he goes on a spiritual journey through India to connect with God. The documentary goes into some detail about his struggles with depression, and one of the first things we are told about him is that he wrote a suicide note but grew to appreciate life through showing kindness to others.
The Kindness Within: A Journey to Freedom is a truly beautiful documentary that celebrates the importance of spirituality, kindness, hope, life and humanity. Well shot, with some truly inspiring and heartfelt monologues from interviewees and the people Logothetis met during his journey, this film is bound to emotionally resonate with you in at least one way. It is very immersive and does a great job at bringing you alongside Logothetis on his spiritual journey.
I really liked how much focus there is on the emotional aspect of this film. This film is not really there to just tell you about a specific topic. It wants you to feel things. I appreciated the words of wisdom that are shared in the end credits. I ended up staying for the whole thing, just to see what everyone had to say. The messages that this film gives you are very universal, I think. You don’t even need to be religious to be able to take something away from it. I also appreciated the variety of faiths that are showcased in this film, and how it showcases the similarities between them, but also their differences. As someone who doesn’t really have that great of an understanding of God or spirituality, I found this film to be pretty eye-opening, and came out of it with a better understanding of those topics and why they mean so much to people.
-Madelyn, Filmmaker Mixer Correspondent
