New York filmmaker Kate Churchill had been practicing yoga for seven years when she decided to make a movie about it. The premise: Introduce a skeptical young guy to yoga and prove that yoga can transform him. The result is Enlighten Up!, which makes a quick San Francisco premiere this week at the Roxie, as part of the SF Doc Fest before its national run starts in March.

Nick Rosen, the star of the film, is a NY journalist in his early 30s. He has an attorney dad and a shamanic healer mom, and seems caught between practical and mystical callings. He says, "I don't expect any earth-shattering changes" at the start of the film, and he spends the rest of the film trying not to be moved by yoga (while the filmmaker tries to make a yogi out of him).

Churchill manages to get all of the big guns in the film: Baron Baptiste, Rodney Yee, Cyndi Lee, Judith Lasater, Dharma Mittra, David Life and Sharon Gannon, Pattabhi Jois, and even Mr. Iyengar, himself. She takes Rosen to India and back to try every type of yoga from kundalini to Bikram to "Yoga for Regular Guys" (invented by a wrestler who says "T and A" is more important than "Namaste").

So, does Nick get enlightened in the end? The answer to that question may depend not only on his perspective, but on your own.

+ See the movie at the Roxie on Saturday, October 25, or Tuesday, October 28. Rosen and Churchill will be at the screenings to answer questions afterward. (Get tix soon as they are selling out!)

+ See Churchill at the Apple Store on Friday, October 24, at 6pm, where she will be showing clips from the movie and giving a talk.

+ Click here to read my recent blog about Yoga in the Movies.

+ Let us know what you think about Enlighten Up!