BFFE Amsterdam Runs October 1–3

The Buddhist Film Festival Europe (BFFE) ran in Amsterdam October 1–3, 2011 presenting 18 films and including special focus strands on Japan and Burma.

Opening night featured the new anime production of the late Osamu Tezuka’s Buddha. Other films from or about Japan included two of American filmmaker Steve Okazaki’s documentaries about Hiroshima and its aftermath (White Light/Black Rain, The Mushroom Club), the classic Black Rain by Shohei Imamura, the documentary Surviving the Tsunami, the new dramatic feature Abraxas, Shugendo Now (a Buddhist Film Foundation sponsored film), and 20th anniversary presentations of two classic documentaries from the US, Inland Sea and Dream Window.

Films in the Burma strand included This Prison Where I Live, Into the Current, Burma Soldier and Aung San Suu Kyi–Lady of No Fear. Other titles include Crazy Wisdom, by Johanna Demetrakas, My Reincarnation (a Buddhist Film Foundation sponsored film), by Jennifer Fox, Bodhisattva–The 17th Karmapa by Mark Elliott, and Mindfulness and Murder, from Thailand.

Buddhist Film Foundation has been a program advisor to BFFE since its inception.

Official festival website.