BuddhaFest celebrates its 15th anniversary with an online festival titled “15 Years of Light and Wisdom,” presented in partnership with Lion’s Roar magazine July 14–August 24. Featuring a dozen films selected by our International Buddhist Film Festival (IBFF), plus a special film in honor of the Dalai Lama’s 90th birthday, BuddhaFest hosts over 20 talks and a musical performance.
Originally launched as an in-person festival in Washington, DC, BuddhaFest moved to Los Angeles a few years later and went online even before the pandemic pushed many events towards streaming. Since the beginning, IBFF has been the film programmer.
This year’s program offers a selection of films that have appeared at BuddhaFest over the years: American Rimpoche, by Nikki Appino, Buddha’s Lost Children, by Mark Verkerk, Descending the Mountain, by Maartje Nevejan, Digital Dharma, by Dafna Yachin, Dreaming Lhasa, by Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam, My Son Tenzin, by Tsultrim Dorjee and Tashi Wangchuk, Painting Peace, by Babeth Mondini-VanLoo, Refuge, by John DiLeva Halpern, The Devotion of Matthieu Ricard, by George Schouten and Babeth Mondini-VanLoo, Wandering…But Not Lost, by Paul MacGowan, Words of My Perfect Teacher, by Lesley Ann Patten, and Zen and the West, by Luke Fitch. The Dalai Lama’s Gift, by Ed Bastian, documents the 14th Dalai Lama performing the first ever Kalachakra initiation in North America, in 1981.
New talks by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, Sharon Salzberg, Roshi Joan Halifax, Thupten Jinpa, Sister True Dedication, Robert J. Waldinger, Jan Willis, and Gullu Singh are joined by encore talks from previous BuddhaFests by Joanna Macy, Ram Dass, Matthieu Ricard, Lama Tsultrim Allione, Sylvia Boorstein, Jack Kornfield, Trudy Goodman, Robert Thurman, Craig Hamilton, Ruth King, Pamela Ayo Yetunde, Lama Palden Drolma, Andrew Holecek, and Dr. Nida Chenangtsang. Singer Drukmo Gyal Dakini performs Tibetan healing mantras.
For full program information and tickets (a single pass offers all-access), visit the BuddhaFest official website.
