Hawking inner peace seems an improbable undertaking for the maker of some of cinema’s most disturbing images, but it turns out to be David Lynch’s most personal project. It began during the production of Eraserhead (1977), when Lynch says he was filled with anxiety, anger, tension and stress, “with a little depression swimming in there.” His sister showed him the way and, 35 years later, Lynch wants the world to experience the same tranquility that the daily practice of transcendental mediation has brought him. “Unbounded, eternal, infinite consciousness” is the message he’s spreading on a global tour that includes book signings for his 2006 confessional tract, Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness and Creativity. Filmmaker Marcos Andrade, a fellow TM practitioner, follows Lynch on the Brazilian leg of his tour, which stops at swanky bookstores in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and a grim concrete center for boys in Belo Horizonte. Throughout, Lynch gamely signs books, bared flesh and even one stretched-out panty crotch. Whether fielding questions or scouting for a place to smoke, Lynch projects his patented thumbs-up, by-gum attitude that fans struggle to square with such singularly creepy images as Frank Booth fetishizing blue velvet and Laura Palmer’s corpse flesh washed up on a Pacific shore. Presented with humor, respect and even a few Lynchian flourishes, Transcending Lynch might not convert you, but you’ll certainly stop to wonder how anyone could be Lynch without some kind of inner peace. —Shari Kizirian
