On Path to Liberation (2014)

Marie-Therese Bjornerud: Camille Phillips

Photos 

Quotes 

• [first lines] 

  Esther Wasserman : So, how did you get involved in all this?

  Camille Phillips : I always thought that God must be a woman, or at least an aspect of God was a feminine power... and so my journey began and I searched the internet and I ended up finding a few groups, actually, that believed the same thing as me and, um, and that's how I would up finding this amazing guru in India.

  Esther Wasserman : I don't know. Isn't this religion quite paganistic?

  Camille Phillips : Paganism actually plays a very superficial role. I mean, even Buddhism comes from India.

• Camille Phillips : So I just wanted him to relax and fall into it and, um, hmm, I stuck my knife into him.

  Esther Wasserman : Oh, my God! You... killed him?

  Camille Phillips : It was so easy. I was like cold, survival, instinct... .

  Esther Wasserman : Wow.

  Camille Phillips : I just remember washing off...

  Esther Wasserman : You like murdered him, but, I mean, it was definitely justified. Wow.

  Esther Wasserman : And then I escaped.

• Camille Phillips : [narrating]  The next thing I remember I was waking up tied to a tree next to Robbie. Robbie was also tied - bound, tied, blindfolded... no idea where I was.

• [discussing the gang leader, who was also a local politician] 

  Camille Phillips : Whenever he had duties and had to go away, he would put his minion on me and so even he was away, with his wife or whatever he was doing in his ordinary life, this other guy would watch me. He wouldn't lay a hand on me but would just watch me constantly. There was no way out in any case and, um, and when he had to leave, because obviously he couldn't be there all the time either, he would just go somewhere and he'd tie me up and I would just be sitting there all alone in the heat...

  [scene cuts to Camille seated against a post with her hands bound behind her back] 

  Camille Phillips : ...so this is actually one of those days was a turning point because what happened was the demon came back and he saw me tied up and he really lost it in a good way.

  Esther Wasserman : What do you mean?

  Camille Phillips : He was, um, I don't know what happened, he saw me tied up and suddenly he was protective towards me. He got really, really, really pissed off at the watchman and he ended up beating him up.

  Esther Wasserman : Yeah?

  Camille Phillips : So he beat him up and he came to my 'rescue', shall we say. I was really surprised by the whole thing because I felt he cared for a second. I think, you know, I was his.

• [Camille describes to Esther her flight from the gang as the scene plays out on-screen] 

  Camille Phillips : ...and I ended up on a hill, I think I was running down almost a mountain and wound up nearly killing myself because it was raining really hard, you know.

  Esther Wasserman : Oh, God.

  Camille Phillips : And I think from then on, everything that happened was just fate.

  Esther Wasserman : What do you mean?

  Camille Phillips : Um, I think it was just a cat and mouse game to them. They knew exactly where I was. I think it was just fun to let me go and let me run around, you know.

  Esther Wasserman : You're saying they captured you again?

  Camille Phillips : Yeah, they captured me. Of course, they captured me. I had no idea. I just ran straight into them.

• [last lines] 

  Esther Wasserman : Did you ever get in trouble with the local police?

  Camille Phillips : No. He ended up also being feared by the police. He was also a bully towards the police.

  Esther Wasserman : Wow. What kind of justice is that?

  Camille Phillips : They hushed it up.

• [after escaping from the gang of kidnappers, Camille finds her way to the dwelling of a guru and bursts into tears] 

  Camille Phillips : I never cried as much as I cried in his lap. I was, whoa. My guru put me through a whole series of empowerment rituals to help me deal with what just happened and, um, it changed my life for the better. It made me accept what had happened to me. It also made me able to live with it and move past it - use it to move forward in my life. I got to learn from my guru. I got to study under him and he taught me the rituals and over the years to come, I perfected it and I was, when it was my turn, I was able to perform it on other people to also empower them to, not necessarily people who had experiences exactly the same as me, but people who also needed empowerment, people who were in need the same as I was.