Dr. Michael Brant DeMaria’s life turned inside out and upside down after the first decade of his work as a clinical psychologist when he underwent a life transforming vision quest (lament in the wild) without food or water, guided by a native elder. He went there suffering compassion fatigue, burnout and despair after working for years with over 2000 cases of severe child abuse and neglect. The experience provided a profound healing, a course correction and a vision for his life, while also reconnecting him to his first loves - music, nature and visual storytelling. Ever since his mission has been guiding others to, “The ocean of peace that lies within each human heart.” He does this through his work as a sound healer, wisdom teacher and artist employing the creative mediums of music, writing and film. His healing music is heard over a million times a week around the world, garnering him four Grammy® nominations, 8 ZMR awards, 6 #1 albums, a Native American Music Award and appearing on the Grammy® Winning album, All About Bullies Big and Small. He is also a Sounds True recording artist with his music being featured on projects with Eckhart Tolle, Mark Nepo, Peter Kater and Noah Levine. He is the author of 5 books (including 2 books of poetry) and is the creator of the book and free online program Peace Within: Calm your mind, open your heart, embrace your soul and heal your life. After retiring his practice he finally fulfilled his childhood dream of attending film school in LA in 2019. You can find more about his work at www.michaeldemaria.com

Artistic Vision:
While working on my Ph.D. in Jungian Psychology I spent most of my time at Carnegie Mellon University listening to lectures from international film directors and dreaming of going to film school which I finally did many decades later. My main focus and vision in all of my work is exploring the "Twilight" world between nature and culture, male and female, life and death, night and day, joy and sorrow, laughter and grief...We are living in a great time of crisis in nature and culture today - and we need new stories to heal us and guide is into a healthier relationship with nature and each other - this is my mission as a filmmaker.