It's also important that I, or [Producer] Karen Pritzker, also say that this film [ "Resilience: The Biology of Stress & the Science of Hope"] is not going to singlehandedly solve crime and poverty, or make big changes.

There is a wonderful documentary called 'A Room to Breathe,' where a school brought in a TM instructor, to try and establish a better classroom environment, and the results and transformations were profound. It's impossible to ignore, and we make some passing references in my film, but 'A Room to Breathe' is a closer look at just how powerful meditation can be.

Through what I have witnessed and documented, with proper interventions you can break those cycles. When I made the first film on this subject, 'Paper Tigers,' kids were going off the cliff. But then there was intervention, and they won't go off the cliff.

I also think there is a wisdom and strength in that generation [of our parents], in terms of getting through difficult times, and there is a stoicism in the face of challenges that I greatly admire.

Resilience is not just a complimentary individual quality, but something that is built. And you build it through a number of things in your life, part of it being social fabric.

When you have really solid biology and medical science at the core of an issue, it makes it much easier to identify what potential solutions may be.

Many people have overcome that home situation simply by having at least one caring adult, whether a teacher, mentor or religious leader.