A beautiful documentary film set around Dzogchen monastery in Tibet. It focuses on Kjabje Dzogchen Pema Kalsang Rinpoche, who has been instrumental in the rebuilding and re-establishing of the great monastic seat of Dzogchen monastery in Tibet. In 1998 Rinpoche began the construction of the Lotus Ground Retreat Centre in the secluded meadow of Dzogchen Pema Tung. Having completed the stunning Temple of Great Perfection in 2003, he established the Pema Tung annual teachings and empowerments of the secret heart essence of Dzogpa Chenpo for great numbers of fortunate students. High on the Tibetan plateau, in the hidden valley of Rudam, Kham (Eastern Tibet), is the Buddhist monastery of Tibet. It is home o one of the world's most profound and secret spiritual traditions.
Our Southern Home (2008)
A documentary film tells the true story of the locals in southern of Thailand through the life of 4 families that live in different provinces, but hand and share their kindness to one another. The reality of their life is arranged into the story disclosing beautiful sides of the southern of Thailand and changing the point of view about the violence that's been happened in the area.
How to Cook Your Life (2007)
A Zen priest in San Francisco and cookbook author use Zen Buddhism and cooking to relate to everyday life.
Anyang, Paradise City (2010)
Set in Anyang, South Korea, crew members for an upcoming documentary research the devastating fire that took occurred in a factory prior to the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul. 22 female workers, who were locked in their dormitory, were killed in the fire. Along the way, the crew members also come across the past of Anyang, including the origin of the city's name ("Anyang" is a Buddhist term for "Paradise"), Buddhist temples, a search for a 500-year-old "grandma tree" and upcoming mayoral election.
gOD-Talk (2023)
Explores the lives of seven Black Millennials – Atheist, Buddhist, Christians, Muslim, Ifa, and Spiritualist – and the challenges and discoveries with faith and spirituality.
Daughters of Wisdom (2007)
An intimate portrait of the nuns of Kala Rongo, a rare and exceptional Buddhist Monastery exclusively for women situated in Nangchen, in remote and rural northeastern Tibet. These nuns are receiving religious and educational training previously unavailable to women, and playing an unprecedented role in preserving their rich cultural heritage even as they slowly reshape it. They graciously allow the camera a never-before-seen glimpse into their vibrant spiritual community and insight into their extraordinary lives. Some shy, some outspoken, all are committed to the often difficult life they have chosen, away from the yak farms and herding families of their birth. It is the story of their spiritual community, one that couldn't have existed 20 years ago but is thriving today.
Blindsight (2006)
Six blind Tibetan teenagers climb the Lhakpa-Ri peak of Mount Everest, led by seven-summit blind mountain-climber Erik Weihenmayer.
Karmapa - Two Ways of Divinity (1998)
The main characters of the film are two small boys who share the throne of Karmapa, the highest office of one of Tibetan Buddhism's main sects and the third in line after the Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama. As with the Dalai Lama, Karmapa is the same soul which reincarnates in each successor to the office, who is identified by omens, portents and other signs. The Karmapa line actually pre-dates the Dalai Lama's, and their respective importance has alternated in the course of history with either the Karmapa or Dalai Lama holding precedence. Only one of the current Karmapas lives in Tibet, who is recognized by the Dalai Lama but controlled by the Chinese government for political ends. The second Karmapa lives in New Delhi, India and was selected by a Tibetan group in exile. The film was shot in India, Nepal and Tibet and features the Dalai Lama as narrator, providing an incisive spiritual and political view of occupied Tibet.
The Jew in the Lotus (1998)
Tells how Rodger Kamenetz, author of the best-selling 1994 book by the same title, found his way back to Judaism - the tradition of his birth.
Art as a Weapon (2014)
Street art, creativity and revolution collide in this beautifully shot film about art’s ability to create change. The story opens on the politically charged Thailand/Burma border at the first school teaching street art as a form of non-violent struggle. The film follows two young girls (Romi & Yi-Yi) who have escaped 50 years of civil war in Burma to pursue an arts education in Thailand. Under the threat of imprisonment and torture, the girls use spray paint and stencils to create images in public spaces to let people know the truth behind Burma's transition toward "artificial democracy." Eighty-two hundred miles away, artist Shepard Fairey is painting a 30’ mural of a Burmese monk for the same reasons and in support of the students' struggle in Burma. As these stories are inter-cut, the film connects these seemingly unrelated characters around the concept of using art as a weapon for change.
Le Tibet face à la Chine, le dernier souffle ? (2024)
As the crucial question arises of the future succession of the Dalai Lama, we take a look back at the tormented history of the "Land of Snows" which lives under Chinese domination and which remains a geopolitical issue of the first order. A valuable documentary that gives voice to a people that China is trying to permanently silence.
The Last Lost Kingdom (2014)
Following in the footsteps of his father, Folco Felzani embarks on an epic journey on foot in search of Mustang, the last lost kingdom, in northern Nepal. The story of a king without a kingdom. The adventure of a son without a father.
1000 Hands of the Guru (2016)
Four monks, a royal scholar, and their American guru are fighting to save Bhutan's sacred arts while learning the art of letting go.
Dharma Rising (2011)
The films looks through the eyes of the first generation of Western Dharma teachers at the myriad issues Buddhism faces and how it is adapting within a culture that runs on the engines of competition and greed, where many consider cruelty to be kindness and ignorance to be knowledge. But throughout its history Buddhism has adapted to new cultures with almost chameleon-like ease. So if its past is any judge, the sublime path our colonial forefathers dubbed Buddhism has begun a migration that over time will leave it, and quite possibly modernity itself, greatly transformed.
The Frozen Kingdom of the Snow Leopard (2020)
Join the big cats as we get up close and personal with their journeys through growing pains, adulthood, survival struggles and unfamiliar territories. These seven films follow the lives of some of the most formidable feline predators - lions, leopards, tigers and cheetahs in intimate detail.
Women 50 Minutes (2006)
A representation of queer and feminist imagery that was mainly shot in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, remote and developing areas in southwest China, and metropolitan cities like Beijing from 2000 to 2004 to document the social changes in contemporary China. The director sympathetically and erotically represents a variety of women, including women as laborers, women as prayers, women in the ground, women in marriage, and women who lie on the funeral pyre with their dead husbands. Her camera juxtaposes the mountains and rivers in old times, the commercialized handicrafts as exposition, the capital exploitation of the elders’ living space, and the erotic freedom of the young people in a changing city.