Blue Kangling

VALKYRIES

Liubov, a Russian lady who lives in Mexico City. During the routine of her day, Liubov will recall the experiences she had with death, from childhood to adulthood.

Buddhist monks open up about the joys and challenges of living out the precepts of the Buddha as a full-time vocation. Controversies swirling within modern monastic Buddhism are examined, from celibacy and the role of women to racism and concerns about the environment.

Well-known Croatian author Pero Kvesić, who has been struggling with a severe lung disease, documents his death from his own point of view. Recording his everyday struggle, the picture resembles a peculiar blog filled with self-irony and witty comments about life and death. Although the world around continues to shrink, the hero and the director in one does not cease to fill it with sense.

All the gist of Buddhism, the very words of Buddha loaded on to a visual circus where every image has an act for itself. The director is an old student in Vippassana, the Buddhist meditation technique that Buddha taught for forty five years of his life, twenty five centuries ago, and the director brought on to the screen, his visions and hallucinations during deep meditative trance, to remind himself and those intent on attaining Nirvana, and to inspire the future monks / spiritual aspirants to discover themselves.

Three juxtaposing stories taking place in Portugal, Austria and Cuba create an intimate and poetic portrait of the daily lives and struggles of the elderly in an unstable world, seen through the eyes of their grandchildren.

How do you reconcile a commitment to non-violence when faced with violence? Why do the poor often seem happier than the rich? Must a society lose its traditions in order to move into the future? These are some of the questions posed to His Holiness the Dalai Lama by filmmaker and explorer Rick Ray. Ray examines some of the fundamental questions of our time by weaving together observations from his own journeys throughout India and the Middle East, and the wisdom of an extraordinary spiritual leader. This is his story, as told and filmed by Rick Ray during a private visit to his monastery in Dharamsala, India over the course of several months. Also included is rare historical footage as well as footage supplied by individuals who at great personal risk, filmed with hidden cameras within Tibet.

When a Mongolian nomadic family's newest camel colt is rejected by its mother, a musician is needed for a ritual to change her mind.

In 2004 the Oregon State Hospital, former site of the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, revealed the existence of thousands of corroded copper urns, each containing cremated human remains. Photographer David Maisel captured these beautifully unique urns of forgotten souls on film. Exhibiting their photos revealed secrets, influenced political decisions and reunited families. This film will show how art can stimulate social change and will document the ongoing controversy surrounding a proper memorial for these institutionalized casualties.

AGNI, a visual artist in the twilight of his life, is rushing to complete his monumental work. Caught up in a frantic creative routine despite his declining health, he transforms every gesture, every moment into a final trace of his passage. Soon, he knows, he will join the stars.

“Our memories are marked by smells. Bound together by their olfactory sensitivity, a daughter leads her father to question his family heritage: together they go through their double mourning, that of a grandmother and a childhood in Algeria. How do you face up to the fear of vanishing ghosts?”

69, année pandémique

Edgar Morin, chronique d'un regard

Swedish children's program about death by Margareta Strömstedt. The program tries to answer the questions many children think about - what happens when you die? Why do people and animals die? And why is death so difficult to understand?

Terra Incógnita

In the last fifty years the culture of Zen has spread far beyond Japan. Zen centers and zen retreats have sprung up throughout America and Europe. When Dogen, the founder of Soto Zen, brought Zen to Japan from China 800 years ago, it quickly took root and became an integral part of Japanese life. Yet what do we know about zen practice in Japan today? The Zen Mind is a fascinating journey across Japan to explore zen in its natural habitat.

An actuality film showing a Buddhist festival in Kyoto. The procession includes Buddhist monks, geishas, and others dressed coordinately to the Japanese tradition.

The Day of the Dead is one of the most deeply rooted and celebrated traditions in our country and when this festivity takes place in a magical town, the event becomes something memorable. The Day of the Dead tradition in Huautla de Jiménez, Oaxaca begins on October 27 with the arrival of the chá to xo´o´ and the celebration lasts six days. Hand in hand with its inhabitants, we will take a tour to witness all the colors, smells, flavors, sounds, textures, and visions that surround this ancestral festival and that of the Mazatecs.

In August 1997, the tragic death of Diana, Princess of Wales, stunned her family and catapulted the British public into one of the most extraordinary weeks in modern history. What was it about Diana that resulted in such an outpouring of grief? And what does that week reveal about Britain's relationship with the monarchy, then and now?

How do we live, knowing we are going to die? In search of answers, we probed the minds of atheists, Buddhists, Jews, Christians, physicians, philosophers, authors, academics, a legendary stand-up comic, and scores of random pedestrians.