The 11th Buddhist Film Festival in Europe (BFFE) opens in Amsterdam on September 30, 2016 with the Dutch premiere of Hema Hema: Sing Me A Song While I Wait, the new feature from Khyentse Norbu. BFFE will be presented at the EYE Film Museum through October 2.
“This year our theme is interbeing,” says festival founder and director Babeth VanLoo. “This is a notion described by Zen master Thich Nhat Hahn. His engaged Buddhism will be elaborated upon in the film The 5 Powers, and will also address the education of youth in Planting Seeds of Mindfulness.”
The Opening Night film, Hema Hema: Sing Me A Song While I Wait, has been screened at the prestigious Locarno Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival. Director Norbu, a leading Tibetan Buddhist teacher from Bhutan who is widely known as Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche, was a consultant and actor for Bertolucci’s film Little Buddha in 1993, and went on to write and direct his debut feature, The Cup (a Festival Media DVD) in 1999. He followed with 2003’s Travellers & Magicians (US Premiere at IBFF 2003 LOS ANGELES) and Vara: A Blessing, in 2013.
The Closing Night film is Tharlo, by Tibetan director Pema Tseden (The Silent Holy Stones—a Festival Media DVD, The Search, Old Dog), the first Tibetan to graduate from the Beijing Film Academy. BFFE in concert with The EYE Film Museum is also presenting a new 4k digital restoration of the classic film from Taiwan director King Hu, A Touch of Zen (Xia Nu). Other titles include The Great Transmission, by Pema Gellek, Pawo, by Marvin Litvak and Sonam Tseten, The Song Collector, by Erik Koto, My Buddha Is Punk, by Andreas Hartmann, Paths of the Soul, by Yang Zhang (Shower), Angry Buddha, by Stefan Ludwig, and several shorts.
