A new documentary, "The Natural State," about the Indian-born "anti-guru" U.G. Krishnamurti premieres at the Telluride Film Festival, directed by Matt Dougherty and executive produced by Oscar-winning filmmaker Jane Campion, who knew Krishnamurti personally. The film explores the contradictory legacy of a figure described variously as a teacher, philosopher and enlightened being, examining how his often harsh methods of dismantling followers' egos may have given them the spiritual freedom they sought.

The documentary draws heavily on footage and journals kept by Julie Thayer, a wealthy New York mother who abandoned her former life to follow Krishnamurti around the world, obsessively filming him until his death in 2007 aged 88. Dougherty spent roughly ten years bringing the project to completion after discovering Thayer's archive online, a process Campion likens to Ahab's pursuit of the white whale, joking she now calls him "Moby Matt". Campion recounts her own scepticism on first meeting Krishnamurti in Sydney, before describing a walk with him that left her with powerful, unexplained physical sensations she associates with a sense of transference and love.