Zen is a poignant, in-depth, reverent and moving portrait of Dogen, the great 13th century Japanese Buddhist master. He studied at Buddhist centers in China and established a monastic practice which emphasizes sitting meditation; he is regarded as the founder of the Soto school of Zen. Filmed on location in Japan, impressively well-researched and produced with great attention to authentic detail.

From pilgrimages to China to armed monks at war, the Kamakura Era was a time of upheaval in Japan and saw the beginnings of both the Rinzai and Soto schools of Zen Buddhism, and the arrival of tea. The country would never be the same again. Born in 1200, orphaned at eight and initiated as a monk at age fourteen, Dogen is perhaps best known here for his texts Instructions to the Cook and a collection of discourses called the Shobo Genzo. He led a renaissance in practice and doctrine in Japan, and his Zen is the practical implementation of the principle of non-duality.

Director: Banmei Takahashi
Japan / 127 min / Japanese and Chinese (with English subtitles)
Starring: Kantarou Nakamura, Yuki Uchida, Ryushin Tei, Jun Murakami

Special Bonus Feature: The Zen of Dogen, featuring Kazuaki Tanahashi, editor of the new complete translation of Dogen’s Shobo Genzo

Working with over a thousand hours of remarkable footage taken over an unprecedented twenty year span with extraordinary access to Tibetan Buddhist teacher Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, My Reincarnation is the intimate story of a father and son, tradition and change, dreams and realities, destiny and desire, and Tibetan Buddhism in the contemporary world.

Director Jennifer Fox is a veteran world-class filmmaker with a number of award-winning productions to her credit including Beirut: The Last Home Movie, An American Love Story and Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman.

Just completed, My Reincarnation has been shown to wide acclaim at film festivals in Europe and Australia. A North American theatrical release is planned. Net proceeds of the screening will help support the theatrical release of the film.

For more about the film and Jennifer Fox, see In Production.

Official film website.

An International Buddhist Film Festival presentation

Films included several titles premiered at IBFF events: I Am, by Tom Shadyac, Un Buda, by Diego Rafecas, Words of My Perfect Teacher, by Khyentse Norbu, and Wheel of Time, by Werner Herzog, along with the East Coast premiere of Johanna Demetrakas’ Crazy Wisdom, the world premiere of Christina Lundberg’s For the Benefit of All Beings, and the award-winning With One Voice, by Matt Flickstein.

Talks by Lama Tsony, Rudy Bauer, Roshi Enkyo O’Hara, Tara Brach, Hugh Byrne, Ruth King and Sharon Salzberg, as well as appearances by filmmakers Christina Lundberg, Matt Flickstein and Johanna Demetrakas rounded out the program.

Buddhist Film Foundation is an advisor to BuddhaFest.

Previously presented in partnership with the International Buddhist Film Festival in a very successful debut in 2007, the ABFF is co-presented this year with the Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.

The films to be shown are Milarepa, by Neten Chokling; Brilliant Moon: Glimpses of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, by Neten Chokling; Sky Dancer, by Jody Kemmerer; A Zen Life-D.T. Suzuki, by Michael Goldberg; Echoes of the Rainbow, by Alex Law; My Reincarnation, by Jennifer Fox; The Tibetan Book of the Dead, by Hiroaki Mori and Yukari Hayashi; The Buddha, by Krismant Wattananarong; Qi Xia Temple 1937, by Zheng Fang Nan; and Uppalavana, by Sunil Ariyaratne.

In addition to the films, a talk by Buddhist monk Ajahn Brahm will follow the screening of Qi Xia Temple 1937, and directors Alex Law and Jennifer Fox are expected to attend the screenings of their films.

Official ABFF website.

A Challenge

Film is today’s most powerful medium, with the ability to engage people across languages and borders. Our challenge is to connect audiences with motion pictures that embody the vital values long associated with the many Buddhist traditions. These films can help change the way we see ourselves and the world…

Our Work

PRESENTATION

The International Buddhist Film Festival (IBFF), with its international open Call for Entries and curated programming, is widely acknowledged as the definitive reference source for Buddhist cinema. To better serve the growing audience, the IBFF Tenth Anniversary World Tour (2011–2013) is currently being organized. Presentations are planned in the US, Japan, India, Canada, Brazil, Ireland, England, Italy, Israel, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, Korea, Sri Lanka and Thailand. The IBFF VOD (video-on-demand) service will be launched during our World Tour season.

PRESERVATION

Great films from the past, even the recent past, are disappearing at an alarming rate. To ensure availability of good work for current and future audiences, BFF is developing the Buddhist Film Archive (BFA) at UC Berkeley. The BFA Founders’ Collection at UC Berkeley will be inaugurated in late 2011.

PROMOTION

BFF takes a proactive approach to connecting audiences and films. Its Festival Media distribution service has licensed a number of titles (over a dozen have been released to date; many with bonus features); a video-on-demand service is in development. DVD releases of IBFF-presented films from China, Japan, Korea, Sri Lanka, Canada, Holland and the US are currently in production. Plus: a new series of BFF-selected Asian Buddhist classic films will be distributed by Criterion Collection.

PRODUCTION

BFF’s fiscal sponsorship program has to date enabled ten films to raise production funding, with several already going on to international release and awards.

Your Opportunity

The work of the Buddhist Film Foundation is only possible because of sponsorships, foundation grants and contributions from generous supporters like you. Ticket sales account for less than a fraction of any film festival budget (and BFF is so much more than just a film festival…).

By design, BFF maintains a very low overhead, a distributed infrastructure, and a largely volunteer team, so all donations go directly towards programs and services.

Please consider a tax deductible gift to our New Fund Campaign today and help bring new films, new ideas—new ways of seeing—to audiences around the world.

Any amount you can give is meaningful and makes a difference. Please give what you can comfortably afford.

Please contact the Buddhist Film Foundation’s Executive if you would like to:
• Sponsor a collection or film acquisition at the Buddhist Film Archive
• Underwrite a Buddhist Film Foundation event
• Engage the community with a matching grant
• Underwrite an upcoming Festival Media release

It Only Takes A Moment

SUPPORT THE WORK OF THE BUDDHIST FILM FOUNDATION

BFF is an independent 501(c)(3) not-for-profit educational organization and donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

For donations by check or money order:
Buddhist Film Foundation
Zaentz Media Center
2600 Tenth Street, Suite 409
Berkeley, CA 94710-3104 USA

For donations via PayPal:

Thank you for your support.

At age three, Gesar Tsewang Arthur Mukpo, son of renowned Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and his British wife Diana, was identified as the reincarnation of the late Jamgon Kongtrul of Sechen, one of his father’s own teachers in Tibet. Living in Boulder, Colorado and then Halifax, Nova Scotia, Gesar balanced competing cultures and strikingly different definitions of self. His life was far from that of an ordinary contemporary American or Canadian—his father was a world famous Buddhist teacher and author—but there was no monastery upbringing like that of perhaps the best known tulku, the Dalai Lama, or even like his father.

The film goes beyond autobiography to explore the Tibetan tradition of recognition of reincarnations of Buddhist teachers. Other non-Tibetan tulkus are interviewed as well as renowned Tibetan teachers including Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche and HH Ogyen Trinley the 17th Karmapa.

For a full description, trailer, and ordering link, please visit Festival Media’s Tulku page.

Summer Pasture, by directors Lynn True, Nelson Walker III and Tsering Perlo, is a compelling portrayal of the life of a nomadic family on the Tibetan plateau at a time of profound historic change. This will be its Bay Area premiere, and all three directors are expected to attend. Official website.

For venues, screening times and tickets visit CAAM.

Abraxas, by Naoki Kato, is the story of Jonen, a punk rock veteran, now a young married Buddhist monk (i.e., a priest), with an identity crisis of sorts. Touches on karma, self, compassion, community, impermanence, a dog, fathers and sons, relative and absolute, noise and music… weaving bravely between heartfelt emotion and borderline jaunty farce. A soft spot for thrash punk (and Leonard Cohen!) will add to the pleasure. Something of a glimpse perhaps into the place of Buddhism in contemporary Japan…a not-too-distant kin to Juzo Itami’s The Funeral (1984) and Yojiro Katika’s Departures (2008)….

For venues, screening times and tickets visit CAAM.

Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, who died in 1987, was a pivotal figure in bringing Tibetan Buddhism to the West. Raised and trained in the rigorous Tibetan monastic tradition, Trungpa came to the West and shattered preconceived notions about how an enlightened teacher should behave—he openly smoked, drank, and had intimate relations with students—yet his teachings are recognized as authentic and influential. He authored many popular books of Buddhist commentary and teachings (as well as a memoir, Born in Tibet) and was the founder of Naropa University and the practice community now known as Shambhala.

Filmed in the UK, Tibet, Canada, and the US, with unprecedented access and exclusive archival material, Crazy Wisdom looks at the man and the myths about him. Also features Allen Ginsberg, Robert Thurman, Pema Chodron, Jeffery Paine, Ram Das and Sakyong Mipham.

For upcoming screenings, visit the official website.