Screening the Buddha is an ongoing film series beginning in May and running through November 2020 at the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington, DC. Located on the National Mall, the Freer|Sackler museums hold and care for a world-class collections of Asian and American art.
The film series is co-presented by the Smithsonian Institution and Buddhist Film Foundation, in connection with the Freer|Sackler exhibition Encountering the Buddha: Art and Practice Across Asia. The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation is the exhibition’s lead sponsor.
BFF Executive Director Gaetano Kazuo Maida will introduce all the films and moderate discussions with attending directors.
Admission to the museum and screenings is free; tickets are available on a first come, first served basis.
SCREENING THE BUDDHA 2018 PROGRAM
Golden Kingdom
Directed by Brian Perkins
Friday, May 4, 7:00 pm
Germany, USA, Myanmar / 2015 / Burmese with English subtitles / 101 min / Drama
In Person: Director Brian Perkins
![[three young monks in dark red robes sit behind a low wooden table with a burning lamp in front of each of them]](https://buddhistfilmfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/goldenkingdom-festival.jpg)
With their monastery nestled in the jungle hills of Myanmar, life cycles peacefully for four very young Buddhist monks. One day the head abbot learns he must depart on a journey through the mountain pass. Alone and exposed, the four young boys, led by Witazara, must now fend for themselves. With mounting challenges, encroaching war and mysterious forces around them, Witazara must choose whether to follow the master into the pass. This vivid neorealist film by American Brian Perkins is infused with both Burmese folk storytelling and Buddhist tradition, dreams and dharma, life and death. Powerfully filmed on location in Myanmar.
My Son Tenzin
Directed by Tsultrim Dorjee and Tashi Wangchuk
Sunday, May 6, 1:00 pm
USA / 2017 / English / 70 min / Drama
In Person: Tashi Wangchuk
plus: Tsering Bawa to perform Tibetan songs
![[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)
My Son Tenzin 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. A monk (Tsering Dorjee Bawa, Himalaya, Dreaming Lhasa), arrives in the US to search for his grown son, Tenzin, sent away from his family years earlier to get an education. Co-director Tashi Wangchuk is a veteran radio producer for Voice of America Tibetan, and brings to this film his intimate knowledge of the dilemmas of the exiled confronting cultural, political, familial, and spiritual challenges. This film is a work from the vanguard of Tibetan artists creating an authentic and compelling new Tibetan cinema.
The Three Marks of Existence
Directed by Gunparwitt Phuwadolwisid
Sunday, May 6, 3:00 pm
Thailand / 2012 / English, and Thai with English subtitles / 114 min / Drama
Live via Skype: Director Gunparwitt Phuwadolwisid
![[dark haired Asian man in white t-shirt and dark jacket hold a letter and gazes out with multi-colored, ribbon-like background]](https://buddhistfilmfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/tmoe-festival.jpg)
Humor and light-hearted charm join Buddhist teachings in this find from IBFF BANGKOK. A young Thai man, M, goes on the classic Buddhist pilgrimage tour in India and Nepal: Lumbini, the Buddha’s birthplace; Bodh Gaya, where Buddha gained his awakening; Sarnath, the site of the first teachings; and Kushinagar, where the Buddha died. As any good road movie requires, M meets interesting people along the way, and slowly begins to understand the secret of pilgrimage. But beginner’s mind is a wild and beautiful thing… Filmed on location in Thailand and India.
Zen for Nothing
Directed by Werner Penzel
Friday, May 11, 7:00 pm
Germany, Japan / 2016 / English, and Japanese and German with English subtitles / 100 min / Documentary
In Person: Director Werner Penzel
US PREMIERE
![[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)
The title may be provocative, but 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…
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
Sunday, May 13, 2:00 pm
Bhutan / 2016 / Dzongkha with English subtitles / 132 min / Drama
Live via Skype: Director Dechen Roder
US PREMIERE
![[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)
This first feature by Bhutanese 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.
