![[green buddha head with yellow top knot, blue ears, and orange triangle at third eye, above international buddhist film festival in black type and 2018 showcase in green type]](https://buddhistfilmfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/IBFF2018SHOWCASE-V-green-REV.png)
Since Buddhist Film Foundation’s inaugural International Buddhist Film Festival (IBFF) at LACMA in 2003, IBFF has been to ten cities on three continents, screening over 300 films from 22 nations. Coming off its recent Screening the Buddha film series at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, IBFF is partnering with BuddhaFest in LA and California Film Institute in San Rafael to present a showcase of new cinema with a Buddhist touch. As always, there will be filmmakers and special guests participating.
WRITERS GUILD THEATER SCHEDULE
IBFF 2018 SHOWCASE features two west coast premieres on Saturday, June 2 at this year’s BuddhaFest | LA (June 1–3) which opens on Friday, June 1 with a special concert performance of The Tibetan Book of the Dead.
Please visit BuddhaFest | LA for venue, event, and ticket information, and online ticket purchase.
PROGRAM
Zen for Nothing
Directed by Werner Penzel
Germany, Japan / 2016 / English, and Japanese and German with English subtitles / 100 min / Documentary
WEST COAST PREMIERE
Saturday, June 2, 6:15 pm
In Person: Director Werner Penzel
![[man holding a red backpack climbs steep stone stairs edged with greenery and thick tree trunks]](https://buddhistfilmfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/zen-for-nothing-festival.jpg)
This film is a masterly immersion into life at a Japanese Zen monastery over three seasons of a year. Swiss novice Sabine arrives at Antaiji, and after a brief welcome, the learning process of the monastery rules begins: how to bow, how to sit in the meditation hall on the cushion in front of the empty wall, how to carry out the individual movements with the chopsticks in connection with the three black painted wooden bowls, how to behave…
But there’s more to life in the monastery than meditation, farming, and maintenance—there are picnics and music, and Wi-Fi. And after the last snow has melted away, the nuns and monks travel to Osaka where they recite sutras in front of subway entrances as they solicit offerings in their traditional monk’s robes. Quotes from renowned early 20th century Antaiji abbot Koda Sawaki are interjected throughout. Simple, and beautifully filmed, this is Into Great Silence meets Enlightenment Guaranteed, with Fred Frith, composer, performing the eclectic and elegant score.
Honeygiver Among the Dogs
Directed by Dechen Roder
Bhutan / 2016 / Dzongkha with English subtitles / 132 min / Drama
WEST COAST PREMIERE
Saturday, June 2, 8:45 pm
![[asian woman with long dark hair stares to camera with light behind her creating flairs]](https://buddhistfilmfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/honeygiver-among-the-dogs-festival.jpg)
Filmed on location in Bhutan, this first feature by Dechen Roder is her feminist twist on film noir. A woman goes missing from a small village, policeman Kinley is put on the case, and his number one suspect is sexy Choden. But the missing woman is the abbess of a Buddhist nunnery, and there are some forces at work beyond the obvious. Choden regales Kinley with legends about enlightened female deities fighting social oppression—stories he dismisses as “rumors,” given that he eyes Buddhist murals with suspicion rather than awe. Vividly filmed by cinematographer Jigme Tenzing (who also lensed Khyentse Norbu’s Hema Hema: Sing Me A Song While I Wait), this is a beautiful and provocative journey into contemporary Bhutan, the last Buddhist kingdom.
CHRISTOPHER B. SMITH RAFAEL FILM CENTER SCHEDULE
Buddhist Film Foundation partners with Smith Rafael Film Center to showcase new programs from the International Buddhist Film Festival on three consecutive Sundays starting June 10.
Please visit Smith Rafael Film Center for venue, ticket information, and online ticket purchase. Tickets can also be purchased at the SRFC box office which opens one-half hour prior to the first showing of the day; 415.454.1222 info-line for showtimes, 415.454.5813 main office.
PROGRAM
Zen for Nothing
Directed by Werner Penzel
Germany, Japan / 2016 / English, and Japanese and German with English subtitles / 100 min / Documentary
BAY AREA PREMIERE
Sunday, June 10, 4:15 pm
Introduced by Zesho Susan O’Connell, Spiritual Director, Zen-Inspired Senior Living Community Project (former president of SF Zen Center)
In Person: Director Werner Penzel
This film is a masterly immersion into life at a Japanese Zen monastery over three seasons of a year. Swiss novice Sabine arrives at Antaiji, and after a brief welcome, the learning process of the monastery rules begins: how to bow, how to sit in the meditation hall on the cushion in front of the empty wall, how to carry out the individual movements with the chopsticks in connection with the three black painted wooden bowls, how to behave…
But there’s more to life in the monastery than meditation, farming, and maintenance—there are picnics and music, and Wi-Fi. And after the last snow has melted away, the nuns and monks travel to Osaka where they recite sutras in front of subway entrances as they solicit offerings in their traditional monk’s robes. Quotes from renowned early 20th century Antaiji abbot Koda Sawaki are interjected throughout. Simple, and beautifully filmed, this is Into Great Silence meets Enlightenment Guaranteed, with Fred Frith, composer, performing the eclectic and elegant score.
Honeygiver Among the Dogs
Directed by Dechen Roder
Bhutan / 2016 / Dzongkha with English subtitles / 132 min / Drama
BAY AREA PREMIERE
Sunday, June 17, 4:15 pm
In Person: Gaetano Kazuo Maida and Skype with Filmmaker Dechen Roder
Filmed on location in Bhutan, this first feature by Dechen Roder is her feminist twist on film noir. A woman goes missing from a small village, policeman Kinley is put on the case, and his number one suspect is sexy Choden. But the missing woman is the abbess of a Buddhist nunnery, and there are some forces at work beyond the obvious. Choden regales Kinley with legends about enlightened female deities fighting social oppression—stories he dismisses as “rumors,” given that he eyes Buddhist murals with suspicion rather than awe. Vividly filmed by cinematographer Jigme Tenzing (who also lensed Khyentse Norbu’s Hema Hema: Sing Me A Song While I Wait), this is a beautiful and provocative journey into contemporary Bhutan, the last Buddhist kingdom.
My Son Tenzin
Directed by Tsultrim Dorjee and Tashi Wangchuk
USA / 2017 / English, and Tibetan with English subtitles / 70 min / Drama
BAY AREA PREMIERE
Sunday, June 24, 4:15 pm
In Person: Co-director Tsultrim Dorjee and Actor/Musician Tsering Dorjee Bawa
![[monk with shaved head, glasses, and red robes, holds prayer beads while looking to camera while sitting on rocks at water's edge]](https://buddhistfilmfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/my-son-tenzin-festival.jpg)
This Bay Area production in English is a warm-hearted and clear-eyed look at life in exile for a new generation of Tibetans separated from their homeland by more than distance. Tsering Dorjee Bawa (who will also give a live performance of Tibetan songs) stars as a monk who arrives in the US in search of his grown son Tenzin, sent away years earlier to get an education. Co-director Wangchuk is a veteran radio producer for Voice of America Tibetan, and he brings to his film an intimate knowledge of the dilemmas of the exiled confronting cultural, political, familial, and spiritual challenges.
