The film series runs March 12–28, 2010 and is a co-presentation of Smithsonian Institution and International Buddhist Film Festival in connection with the exhibition In the Realm of the Buddha at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery.
Screenings are at the Meyer Auditorium in the Freer and Sackler Galleries of the Smithsonian Institution. Seating for films is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Auditorium doors will open approximately thirty minutes before each show.
PROGRAM 1
The Buddha
Directed by David Grubin
USA / 2009 / English / 112 min
WORLD PREMIERE
Friday, March 12, 7:00 pm
In Person: Q&A with director David Grubin
The story of Buddha, the 6th century BCE prince who became a great spiritual teacher, has been told in many ways and media. Here, in its world premiere, is an ambitious and imaginative film by veteran documentary director David Grubin (RFK, FDR, LBJ, The Jewish Americans, Napoleon) that uses contemporary voices (including poets Jane Hirshfield and W.S. Merwin, and Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman) as well as animation to explore the life and meaning of the man who became “awake” and continues to inspire the diverse Buddhist cultures all over the world. Filmed on location in India and Nepal, and narrated by Richard Gere.
PROGRAM 2
The Karma Kagyu
Sunday, March 14, 3:00 pm
In Person: producer Gregg Eller, IBFF executive director Gaetano Kazuo Maida
Filmmakers invited for Q&A
This program of three documentary films highlights one of the four major Tibetan Buddhist traditions, the Karma Kagyu, which is closely associated with the Encampment style of Tibetan painting presented in the In the Realm of the Buddha exhibition on view in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. The Karma Kagyu lineage is led by a line of reincarnated lamas, each known as the Karmapa. The famous 11th century yogi, Milarepa (see PROGRAM 3), is a key link in the Karma Kagyu school.
The Lion’s Roar
Directed by Mark Elliott
USA / 1985 / English / 50 min
The Lion’s Roar is a profile of the late 16th Gyalwa Karmapa, written by Rick Fields, narrated by James Coburn and filmed on location in Sikkim and the US.
The Ceremony of the Vajra Crown
Presented by Gregg Eller
USA / 1980 / English / 20 min
The Ceremony of the Vajra Crown documents one of the unique rituals and empowerments performed by the Karmapa; this rare footage was filmed in New Hampshire in 1980 by Academy Award nominee John Karol.
The Wishfulfilling Gem
Directed by Mark Elliott
USA / 2009 / English / 60 min
The Wishfulfilling Gem, a new film by director Mark Elliott, presents the current incarnation, who many consider to be the likely Tibetan Buddhist master ultimately to fill the spiritual role currently played by the 14th Dalai Lama.
PROGRAM 3
Milarepa: Magician, Murderer, Saint
Directed by Neten Chokling
Bhutan / 2006 / Tibetan with English subtitles / 90 min
Friday, March 19, 7:00 pm
In Person: Q&A with Greg Kruglak, executive producer
This is a vividly told, captivating story of Milarepa, the man who would become Tibet’s greatest yogi, poet, and saint (and a major figure in the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism). In the dramatic setting of 11th century Tibet, the young Milarepa falls into a world of betrayal and hardships. The greed of others upturns his privileged life, dropping him into a void of despair, humiliation, pain and anger, and he sets out to exact revenge. Filmed on location in breathtakingly scenic Spiti, India, near the Tibetan border. Director Neten Chokling is a Tibetan Buddhist lama and co-star of the hit film The Cup). The film stars Jamyang Lodro and Orgyen Tobgyal (both featured in The Cup.)
PROGRAM 4
The Saltmen of Tibet
Directed by Ulrike Koch
Switzerland, Germany / 1997 / German and Tibetan with English subtitles / 110 min
Sunday, March 21, 1:00 pm
Observing age-old taboos and steadfast homage to the deities of the land and elements, four men meticulously plan and embark upon their grueling three-month yak caravan to fetch “the tears of Tara,” the precious salt from the holy lakes of northern Tibet. The Saltmen of Tibet is a breathtaking collage of image and sound—a majestic tribute to the purity of a landscape, people, and tradition facing extinction.
PROGRAM 5
The Silent Holy Stones
Directed by Pema Tseden (in Chinese: Wanma Caidan)
Tibet, China / 2005 / Chinese and Tibetan with English subtitles / 102 min
Sunday, March 21, 3:30 pm
Tibetan writer/director Pema Tseden ‘s dramatic feature debut is a Chinese production filmed on location in a Tibetan village (Qinghai province). The film follows a young lama assigned for Tibetan New Year as attendant to a seven-year-old Living Buddha of a mountain monastery. The boys struggle to balance their strict training with explorations of the outside world through the novelty of television. Danpei Lama and Quhuancang Buddha star in this charming and intimate insider’s view of everyday life in the director’s hometown during a time of transition.
The place where the story took place is none other than my home village, where the mountains and waters have always haunted my dreams. I long to tell the true stories-in my own way-that have come up in my home village, to disclose the real looks of her, and to reveal the genuine conditions of life of the people there. What the film endeavors to depict is the unconscious change that has been going on under the surface of the seeming silence in the relatively secluded land, a reciprocal infiltration between tradition and modernism…” – writer/director Pema Tseden
PROGRAM 6
Wheel of Time
Directed by Werner Herzog
Germany / 2003 / English and Tibetan with English subtitles / 80 min
Friday, March 26, 7:00 pm
Master filmmaker Werner Herzog devotes his idiosyncratic passion and vast cinematic skill to discovering Tibetan Buddhism for himself. Herzog first finds the Dalai Lama at an assembly of half a million pilgrims at the place of Buddha’s enlightenment in India. Herzog’s resonant voiceover guides us on this beautiful exploration of Tibetan culture, and then takes us on a pilgrimage to sacred Mt. Kailash and back to Germany where the Dalai Lama presides over an important ritual known as the Kalachakra (“wheel of time”) initiation.
PROGRAM 7
Words of My Perfect Teacher
Directed by Lesley Ann Patten
Canada / 2003 / English / 103 min
Sunday, March 28, 1:00 pm
From the World Cup in Germany to the remote Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan, three students are on a quest they hope will lead to wisdom. The catch is their teacher. Soccer obsessed, charismatic filmmaker, and citizen of the world, Khyentse Norbu may be one of the world’s most eminent Tibetan Buddhist teachers, but it’s a job description he slyly seems to reject at every turn. With music by Sting and an appearance by Bernardo Bertolucci.
PROGRAM 8
Roots of Infinity
Directed by Ken’ichi Oguri
Japan / 1991 / English and Tibetan with English subtitles / 85 min
Sunday, March 28, 3:30 pm
Nearly twenty years ago, director Ken’ichi Oguri spent over a year filming this remarkable documentary on location in a Tibetan village in Nepal. With indelible images of the full cycle of life in a traditional Buddhist community—birth, marriage, livelihood, harvests, religion and death—this film offers an intimate view of a world that no longer exists anywhere, as modernization and dislocation have taken their toll.
