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- DirectorNati BaratzStarsTenzin ZopaIn Nepal, a venerable monk, Geshe Lama Konchog, dies and one of his disciples, a youthful monk named Tenzin Zopa, searches for his master's reincarnation. The film follows his search to the Tsum Valley where he finds a young boy of the right age who uncannily responds to Konchog's possessions. Is this the reincarnation of the master? After the boy passes several tests, Tenzin takes him to meet the Dalai Lama. Will the parents agree to let the boy go to the monastery, and, if so, how will the child respond? Central to the film is the relationship the child develops with Tenzin.
- DirectorYukari HayashiBarrie McLeanStarsLeonard CohenThe Dalai LamaRam DassDeath is real, it comes without warning and it cannot be escaped. An ancient source of strength and guidance, The Tibetan Book of the Dead remains an essential teaching originating in the spiritual cultures of the Himalayas. Narrated by Leonard Cohen, this enlightening two-part program explores the sacred text and boldly visualizes the afterlife according to its profound wisdom. Part 1: A Way of Life reveals the history of The Tibetan Book of the Dead and examines its traditional use in northern India, as well as its acceptance in Western hospices. Shot over a four-month period, the film contains footage of the rites and liturgies for a deceased Ladakhi elder and includes an interview with the Dalai Lama, who shares his views on the book's meaning and importance. Watch The Tibetan Book of the Dead - Part 2: The great Liberation
- DirectorBarrie McLeanStarsLeonard CohenPema OzoktenTsering Sonam
- DirectorRob LemkinThet SambathStarsThet SambathNuon CheaPol PotOne of the most harrowing and compelling personal documentaries of our time, ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE exposes for the first time the truth about the Killing Fields and the Khmer Rouge who were behind Cambodia's genocide.
- DirectorEdward A. BurgerA journey exploring the practices of Chinese hermits living in the Zhongnan Mountains.
- DirectorRithy PanhStarsKhieu 'Poev' ChesYeay CheuNhem EnA unique documentary on the notorious S-21 prison, today the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, with testimony by the only surviving prisoners and former Khmer Rouge guards.
- StarsMike CooperAnita MoorjaniDean RadinAn epic adventure that aims to unravel the mystery at the heart of our existence: the questions of our identity and our destiny.
- DirectorDafna YachinStarsE. Gene SmithMatthieu RicardKhyentse NorbuGene Smith was born in Utah and raised a Mormon. After studying science and anthropology, Smith relies on an interest and ability in obscure languages to avoid the Vietnam-era draft. While studying Sanskrit and Tibetan at the University of Washington, he takes up Tibetan Buddhism as an academic pursuit and offers to help Tibetan refugees - brought to the U.S. to teach - to assimilate into American life. He is assigned to live with the family of Deshung Rinpoche, one of the most learned lamas to escape Tibet. Smith teaches English to Deshung, and Deshung teaches Smith about Tibetan culture and Buddhism. In 1959, Red Army Soldiers destroy thousands of homes and temples. Tibetan refugees are forced to leave behind countless artifacts, the sole evidence of their culture. A 1500-year literary tradition, in Sanskrit and Tibetan, is in danger of disappearing. Smith travels through India, Bhutan and Nepal, using letters of introduction from Deshung Rinpoche to meet other Tibetan refugees. In India, he studies with notable lamas and, in 1968, starts working at the Library of Congress field office in New Delhi. Smith's home soon becomes an intellectual haven for scholars, officials and Buddhists of all nationalities. The last known official handwritten catalog of Tibetan documents and their hidden locations comes into his possession. It identifies where the monks have hidden their precious libraries for safe-keeping. A U.S.-sponsored cooperative assistance program gives Smith the opportunity to save these artifacts. Public Law 480 initiative (PL480) encourages developing countries to buy surplus U.S. wheat and other agricultural products. This program becomes known as "Food for Peace" under the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations. But funds owed to the U.S. are mounting and blocked currencies, including the Indian Rupee, cannot be used for repayment, so PL480 is amended to create a kind of "Food for Thought" program. Smith and his colleagues decide that the Library of Congress should purchase these unique publications. Smith begins making copies of rare and important texts that have been smuggled out of Tibet by exiles of the four main Tibetan Buddhist lineages. These books are sent to the US and placed in university libraries for dissemination. In the late '90s, Smith realizes the power of the Internet and creates the first comprehensive library of Tibetan texts. His goal is to digitize all of the 20,000+ books in his collection so that he can return these sacred texts to native Tibetan speakers, wherever they live, and make them accessible to everyone, even in the most remote monasteries and villages, and preserve the knowledge they contain for humanity. Before he can complete his life's work, Gene Smith dies in 2010. Thousands mourn his passing and hail him as the man who saved Tibetan culture.
- DirectorSteven GorelickHelena Norberg-HodgeJohn PageStarsJan BarhamRonald ColmanEliana Amparo Apaza Espillico'The Economics of Happiness' features a chorus of voices from six continents calling for systemic economic change. The documentary describes a world moving simultaneously in two opposing directions. On the one hand, government and big business continue to promote globalization and the consolidation of corporate power. At the same time, all around the world people are resisting those policies, demanding a re-regulation of trade and finance - and, far from the old institutions of power, they're starting to forge a very different future. Communities are coming together to re-build more human scale, ecological economies based on a new paradigm - an economics of localization.
- DirectorLesley Ann PattenStarsKhyentse NorbuLuc DierckxLouise RoddIt's a beautiful day today. We'll go for a walk and see some of the city.