IBFF 2012 LONDON was sponsored by the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation in conjunction with the Buddhist Art Forum held concurrently at the Courtauld Institute of Art, which they also sponsored.

Highlights from IBFF 2012 LONDON include: Mindfulness and Murder (Thailand), which sold out and a second screen added also sold out; director Tom Waller and producer Michael Pritchett were joined onstage by the film’s composer Olivier Liboutry, a surprise guest from Paris. Crazy Wisdom (USA) also sold out two screens and prompted a US-style rush line out the door of attendees hopeful of no-shows. A late program change brought the UK premiere of the legendary comedy Hi Dharma! (Korea).

BBC journalist and Burma activist Nita May, one of the interviewees in Aung San Suu Kyi: Lady of No Fear (Denmark), came to introduce the SPOTLIGHT ON BURMA program which included Into the Current (Burma/Thailand/USA), and stayed to take questions from the audience for over an hour. Filmmaker Jennifer Fox presented her My Reincarnation (Italy/USA) and was joined onstage for questions after the screening by executive producer Babeth VanLoo, who is the program director of BOS-TV the Buddhist television channel in Holland. The co-directors of Kanzeon (Japan/UK) Neil Cantwell and Tim Grabham held an enthusiastic audience for over a half hour after the screening of their masterful exploration of image and sound from Japanese Buddhist communities.

Next up: IBFF 2012 BANGKOK, June 6–10…

Thirteen films—documentaries and dramatic features—from ten nations, with nine European or UK premieres will be screened, and directors with films from five countries are expected to attend. Among the programs is a Spotlight on Burma, with two films, Aung San Suu Kyi: Lady of No Fear and Into the Current, and among the premieres are films from Nepal, Japan, Thailand, Canada and China.

Here’s the full program and schedule.

IBFF 2012 HONG KONG is supported by The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation and is one of several inaugural year events at the brand-new Asia Society Hong Kong Center, including a major art exhibition, Transforming Minds: Buddhism in Art, February 10–May 20, 2012, curated by Dr. Melissa Chiu with co-curators Dr. Adriana Proser and Dr. Miwako Tezuka.

Here’s the full IBFF 2012 HONG KONG schedule.

PROGRAM

Shugendo Now
Directed by Jean-Marc Abela and Mark Patrick McGuire
Japan, Canada / 2010 / Japanese with English subtitles / 88 min / Documentary
EUROPEAN PREMIERE
Wednesday, April 11, 6:30 pm
Buy tickets here.

There is a unique school of Japanese asceticism called Shugendo, the Way of Acquiring Power, a blend of Shinto, Daoism and Buddhism. Followers practice arduous rituals in mountain wildernesses and are deeply committed to protecting the natural environment. The film is a poetic and intimate journey into a rarely seen world between the developed and the wild, between the present and the infinite. Filmed on location in Japan’s Kumano Mountains, Tokyo and Osaka.

The Buddha
Directed by David Grubin
USA / 2010 / English / 112 min / Documentary
Narrated by Richard Gere
UK PREMIERE
Wednesday, April 11, 8:45 pm
Buy tickets here.

The story of Buddha, the 6th century BCE prince who became a great spiritual teacher, has been told in many ways and media. This is an ambitious and imaginative film by veteran documentary director David Grubin (RFK, FDR, LBJ, The Jewish Americans, Napoleon), narrated by Richard Gere. The film features location footage plus animation and contemporary voices including poets Jane Hirshfield and US Poet Laureate W.S. Merwin, and Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman to explore the life and meaning of the man who became “awake” and continues to inspire the diverse Buddhist cultures all over the world. Filmed on location in India, Nepal and the US.

Mindfulness and Murder
Directed by Tom Waller
Thailand / 2011 / Thai with English subtitles / 90 min / Dramatic Feature
UK PREMIERE
Thursday, April 12, 6:30 pm
Director expected to attend
Buy tickets here.

The body of a dead homeless youth turns up in a Bangkok monastery and the police don’t want to get involved. Former homicide detective Father Ananda is now a senior monk and is asked by the abbot to solve the murder. Based on a novel by Bangkok resident Nick Wilgis, the film explores the intimate world of a Thai Buddhist monastery while following the rules of a classic whodunit. And as usual, not everything turns out to be what it at first seems. Starring Vithaya Pansringarm as Father Ananda, with two pop music personalities in leading roles, Prinya “Way” Intachai, one of the rappers in Thaitanium, and Charina Sirisinha of the ZaZa.

Karma
Directed by Tsering Rhitar Sherpa
Nepal / 2006 / Tibetan with English subtitles / 104 min / Dramatic Feature
EUROPEAN PREMIERE
Thursday, April 12, 8:45 pm
Buy tickets here.

A road movie with Tibetan Buddhist nuns: an intimate story that begins behind the walls of a nunnery in remote Mustang. Karma is a free-spirited nun, and when the abbess dies, there’s an urgent need for money to pay for the rites after her death; Karma is assigned to go with another nun to try to retrieve funds on loan to a mysterious man once known to the abbess. Her search, and her journey within, take us to Katmandu, and beyond the obvious, beyond expectations, even beyond Buddhism at one point. She gets some advice along the way, “You’re desperately after something… you won’t get it, but you won’t fail.” And the movies play a part, of course. A rare and intriguing glimpse into the inner life of Tibetan nuns in a changing world. (Karma also means “actions”…) Starring Tsering Dolkar, Ani Yeshi Lhamo, Mithila Sharma and Jampa Kalsang.

The Great Pilgrim
Directed by Jin Tiemu
China / 2009 / Chinese with English subtitles / 98 min / Documentary
EUROPEAN PREMIERE
Friday, April 13, 6:30 pm
Buy tickets here.

One of the most celebrated journeys in history is that of Tang dynasty Chinese monk Xuanzang. His quest to obtain original Buddhist texts took him on a nineteen year pilgrimage to India where he studied for several years at the famous Nalanda University. Upon his return to China in 645, bearing many Sanskrit texts, he was sponsored by Emperor Taizang to translate all the texts into Chinese and to record the story of his journey. His autobiography, Great Tang Records of the Western Region, is considered so accurate in its observations that it is consulted by archeologists and historians to this day. It is also the inspiration for the many popular Journey to the West and Monkey stories in novels, comic books, and animated and live action films and television from several countries in Asia. Reenactments, location filming and animation are compellingly deployed in The Great Pilgrim to introduce a truly legendary figure.

Hi Dharma!
Directed by Kwan Park
Korea / 2001 / Korean with English subtitles / 95 min / Dramatic Feature
UK PREMIERE
Friday, April 13, 8:45 pm
Buy tickets here.

In the middle of a turf war, five big city gang brothers seek refuge in a rural Buddhist monastery, and the contrasts loom large. First-time director Kwan Park skillfully plays with these conventions while avoid­ing the predictable in this legendary comedy from Korea. The head monk (veteran Korean actor Kim In-moon) bears himself with dignity and reserve as the younger monks display an assortment of reactions to the intrusion and provocations from the outside world. But the gangsters are on unfamiliar ground too, and subtle transformations begin to unfold all around—not always as expected. The simplicity and solidity of the contemporary monastery envi­ronment are intriguing. These are the deep roots of Korean culture, and the collision with contemporary urban elements is very much a part of the modern dilemma there (and elsewhere…).

Tulku
Directed by Gesar Mukpo
Canada / 2010 / English / 76 min / Documentary
EUROPEAN PREMIERE
Saturday, April 14, 3:00 pm
Buy tickets here.

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 H.H. Ogyen Trinley the 17th Karmapa.

Crazy Wisdom
Directed by Johanna Demetrakas
USA / 2011 / English / 92 min / Documentary
EUROPEAN PREMIERE
Saturday, April 14, 6:30 pm
Buy tickets here.

This is the long-awaited feature documentary that explores the life, teachings, and “crazy wisdom” of Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, a pivotal figure in bringing Tibetan Buddhism to the West. Raised and trained in the rigorous Tibetan monastic tradition, Trungpa 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, vast, and influential. Trungpa taught Buddhism as though it were a matter of life and death. Allen Ginsberg considered him his guru; Thomas Merton wanted to write a book with him; Joni Mitchell wrote a song about him. Filmed in the UK, Tibet, Canada, and the US, twenty years after Trungpa’s death, with unprecedented access and exclusive archival material.

My Reincarnation
Directed by Jennifer Fox
Italy, USA / 2011 / English, Italian, and Tibetan with English subtitles / 82 min / Documentary
OFFICIAL UK PREMIERE
Saturday, April 14, 8:45 pm
Director expected to attend
Buy tickets here.

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. Filmed on location in Italy, China and fifteen other countries.

SPOTLIGHT ON BURMA

Aung San Suu Kyi: Lady of No Fear
Directed by Anne-Gyrithe Bonne
Denmark / 2012 / English / 64 min / Documentary
Buy tickets here.

Compelling and fascinating glimpses into the life of the Nobel Laureate. This new film details some of the consequences her freedom struggle has had, not only for her, but also for her closest friends and family, as she emerges from years of detention to take her place again at the forefront of her country’s transition to democracy.

with
Into the Current
Directed by Jeanne Hallacy
Myanmar, Thailand, USA / 2011 / English and Burmese with English
subtitles / 76 min / Documentary
This film screens as a double feature with Aung San Suu Kyi: Lady of No Fear.

This film honors the leaders of Burma’s nonviolent democracy movement and their personal sacrifices for the freedom of their people. The film explores the commitment of Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, poet Min Ko Naing, comedian Zarganar and women’s leader Nilar Thein. Their stories are told through scenes of political activities filmed at great risk by the Democratic Voice of Burma, with rare archival footage and new material filmed with Burmese exiles. Bo Kyi, a former prisoner, carries the voices and the plight of 2,000 other political prisoners to the international stage.

KanZeOn
Directed by Tim Grabham and Neil Cantwell
UK, Japan / 2011 / English subtitles / 86 min / Documentary
Directors expected to attend
Buy tickets here.

A mysterious and innovative meditation on sound, song, story, ritual, performance, nature, tradition and Japanese Buddhism… a fearless merging of medieval and modern, beautifully filmed with a variety of cinematic techniques on location in Japan, intimate and deeply seen. Kanzeon, another way of saying Kannon, the embodiment of compassion (in Sanskrit: Avalokiteshvara, in Tibetan: Chenrezi, in Chinese: Kuan Yin), can also be written in Japanese as “to see sounds.” Filmed on location in Kyushu, Japan.

Summer Pasture
Directed by Lynn True, Nelson Walker, Tsering Perlo
USA, China / 2010 / Tibetan with English subtitles / 85 min / Documentary
Buy tickets here.

Summer Pasture is a complex and intimate portrayal of the world of a nomadic family on the Tibetan plateau at a time of profound historic change. Locho and Yama are nomadic herders who carve their existence from the land as their ancestors have for generations. But now, as traditional nomadic life confronts rapid modernization, Summer Pasture captures a family at a crossroads, ultimately revealing the profound sacrifice they will make to ensure their daughter’s future. Filmed on location in China.

For ticketing and venue information, please visit Apollo Piccadilly Circus.

PROGRAM

Amongst White Clouds
Directed by Edward A. Burger
China / 2005 / English and Chinese with English subtitles / 86 min / Documentary
ASIA PREMIERE
Friday, March 16, 7:00 pm (with Director Q&A) / Saturday, March 31, 3:00 pm

Amongst White Clouds is an intimate insider’s look at students and masters living in scattered retreats dotting China’s Zhongnan Mountain range. These peaks have reputedly been home to recluses since the time of the Yellow Emperor, some 5,000 years ago. It was widely thought that the tradition was all but wiped out, but this film emphatically and beautifully shows us otherwise. Filmed on location in China by American director Edward A. Burger, the film takes an unforgettable journey into the hidden tradition of China’s Buddhist hermit monks. One of only a few foreigners to have lived and studied with these elusive practitioners, Burger is able, with humor and compassion, to present their tradition, their wisdom, and the hardship and joy of their everyday lives among the clouds.

Famous for his beautiful, expressive puppets, Kawamoto integrates the traditional art forms of Noh, Bunraku doll theater and Kabuki into a unique aesthetic to exquisite effect. The Book of the Dead takes place when Buddhism has just arrived from China, and ghosts and devotion mix; shown with his short comedy Breaking of Branches is Forbidden.

SPECIAL PRESENTATION FOR VESAK DAY

The Buddha
Directed by David Grubin
USA / 2010 / English / 112 min / Documentary
Narrated by Richard Gere
ASIA PREMIERE
Saturday April 28, 7:00 pm / Sunday, April 29, 3:00 pm / Thursday, May 3, 7:00 pm

The story of Buddha, the 6th century BCE prince who became a great spiritual teacher, has been told in many ways and media. This is an ambitious and imaginative film by veteran documentary director David Grubin (RFK, FDR, LBJ, The Jewish Americans, Napoleon), narrated by Richard Gere, that uses animation and contemporary voices—including poets Jane Hirshfield and U.S. Poet Laureate W.S. Merwin, and Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman—to explore the life and meaning of the man who became “awake” and continues to inspire the diverse Buddhist cultures all over the world. Filmed on location in India, Nepal and the U.S.

This is the long-awaited feature documentary that explores the life, teachings, and “crazy wisdom” of Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, a pivotal figure in bringing Tibetan Buddhism to the West. Raised and trained in the rigorous Tibetan monastic tradition, Trungpa 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, vast, and influential. Trungpa taught Buddhism as though it were a matter of life and death. Allen Ginsberg considered him his guru; Thomas Merton wanted to write a book with him; Joni Mitchell wrote a song about him. Filmed in the UK, Tibet, Canada, and the U.S., twenty years after Trungpa’s death, with unprecedented access and exclusive archival material.

One of the most celebrated journeys in history is that of Tang dynasty Chinese monk Xuanzang, who traveled to India and brought back essential Buddhist texts and teachings. Reenactments, location filming and animation are compellingly used to introduce a truly legendary figure (the inspiration for the many Journey to the West and Monkey stories and films).

In a nunnery in the high desert mountains, a revered abbess dies, leaving signs that she will be reborn. Prayers and rituals must be performed to help her consciousness into its next rebirth, but the nunnery coffers are empty. The senior nuns decide that the only way is to try and get back money loaned out to a mysterious man. A nun by the name of Karma decides to take the journey to find this man. Karma was shot in the remote region of Mustang in the Himalayan kingdom of Nepal and follows Karma to Katmandu, where she discovers that things are not what she thought. “Karma” also means “actions”… A rare and intriguing glimpse into the inner life of Tibetan nuns in a changing world.

Thai-English director Tom Waller takes on one of the popular Father Ananda mystery novels. Former cop Ananda is now a senior monk and is asked by the abbot to solve a murder inside his monastery because the police don’t want to get involved. Not everything in the monastery is what it should be, of course.

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.

There is a unique school of Japanese asceticism called Shugendo, the Way of Acquiring Power, a blend of Shinto, Daoism and Buddhism. Followers practice arduous rituals in mountain wildernesses and are deeply committed to protecting the natural environment. The film is a poetic and intimate journey into a rarely seen world between the developed and the wild, between the present and the infinite. Filmed on location in Japan’s Kumano Mountains, Tokyo and Osaka.

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.

Un Buda is the brilliant feature film debut of director Diego Rafecas, a Zen teacher in Argentina. The film follows two brothers orphaned as children when their parents were taken by the military during the “dirty wars” of the 1970s in Argentina. Tomas (Agustin Markert) is now a drifting and withdrawn young man who experiments with ascetic practices and has an instinctive compassion for others. His older brother Rafael, played by Rafecas, is a university philosophy professor, detached and alone. Their struggles with each other and the world around them in Buenos Aires take a dramatic turn when they find themselves at a rural Zen center. Un Buda expands our sense of Buddhism in the world today.

In the remote Sri Lankan countryside, a nun, Uppalavanna follows her conscience while disobeying civil and monastic authority to give sanctuary to a wounded murderer. An insightful drama which reminds that even spiritual life does not provide escape from the tremors of social upheaval in this civil war-torn Buddhist country. The challenges of meeting anger, heartache, desire, and revenge with the Buddhist principles of compassion and forgiveness are confronted with raw emotion and clarity.

A profile (of sorts) of Tibetan teacher and filmmaker Dzongar Jamyang Khyentse Norbu Rinpoche, director of The Cup and Travellers & Magicians. From the World Cup in Germany to the remote Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan, three students are on a quest they hope will lead to wisdom. The catch is… the teacher. Soccer obsessed, charismatic filmmaker, and citizen of the world, Khyentse Norbu may be one of the most eminent Tibetan Buddhist teachers, but it’s a job description he slyly seems to reject at every turn. Featuring appearances by Bernardo Bertolucci, Gesar Mukpo and Steven Seagal; filmed on location in the UK, Bhutan, Canada, the U.S., and Germany. Music by Sting, Tara Slone and Joydrop, Steve Tibbetts, u:man:tek, Kunga 19 and others.

For ticketing and venue information, please visit Asia Society Hong Kong Center.