![[poster with a small figure of a monk in maroon and gold robes, standing in a field of magenta flowers, looking at a distant mountain range with bright blue, lightly clouded sky overhead, holding a rifle over his left shoulder, with small white type at the top and bottom of the poster and large white stacked words the-monk-and the-gun in the sky]](https://buddhistfilmfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/news-the-monk-and-the-gun-poster.jpg)
The Monk and the Gun, shortlisted for the Best International Feature Academy Award® last year, is now streaming on the major platforms including Apple TV, Amazon Prime, Google Play, YouTube and Fandango.
The Monk and the Gun, directed by Pawo Choyning Dorji, was an International Buddhist Film Festival 2023 Official Selection, and had its World Premiere at the prestigious Telluride Film Festival. It went on to its International Premiere at Toronto International Film Festival, and was an Official Selection at Woodstock Film Festival and Busan International Film Festival.
Director Dorji’s first feature, Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom, an IBFF 2021 Official Selection, gained the Academy Award® nomination for Best International Feature in 2022, the first ever nomination for the nation of Bhutan. Dorji was previously producer for Khyentse Norbu’s Heme Hema: Sing Me A Song While I Wait, and was assistant to that director on his Vara: A Blessing. He is an accomplished still photographer, and is currently in production on his next feature, set to be filmed in India.
Set in 2006 just as the King of Bhutan has decided to transition the nation to a democracy, the film bemusedly follows the efforts of young government officials to teach rural villagers about elections, voting, and democracy. Two conflicting efforts (with very different goals) to secure an antique gun, drive the narrative forward until all elements converge at a full moon ceremony led by an elderly lama, the teacher of the monk of the title.
Working with mostly nonprofessionals, as well as with talented cinematographer Jigme Tenzing (who lensed Lunana…), Dorji captures a remote nation and a culture at the very beginning of its historic entry into democracy, and manages to poke some fun at American politics along the way. This is a polished and confident sophomore feature.
Written and directed by Dorji, the film was produced by him with Stephanie Lai, Jean-Christophe Simon, and Feng Hsu, with Lisa Henson, William Horberg, Kris Eiamsakulrat, Janee Pennington, and Zhang Xin serving as executive producers. It was released theatrically in Bhutan and had a U.S. release through Roadside Attractions.
![[blueish-grey poster of black man’s head looking forward, blended at the top right to a golden lit profile of his head and hands playing a saxophone, with fear nothing in blue capital letters at top, and wayne shorter in stacked white capital letters, tucked into stacked golden capital letters zero gravity where the o is a phase of the sun, and with prime in lower case blue letters over a curved arrowed shaped like a smile]](https://buddhistfilmfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/now-streaming-wayne-shorter-zero-gravity-poster.jpeg)
The new film Wayne Shorter: Zero Gravity, directed by Dorsay Alavi, is streaming on Amazon Prime Video as a three part series. The film was an IBFF 2023 Official Selection presented at the Smith Rafael Film Center, with the director in person.
Wayne Shorter—saxophonist, composer, innovator, Buddhist—a giant in music and an inspiring influence on the generations that have come up behind him, died earlier this year. We are very fortunate to have this remarkable film record of his life and work to bring all of his gifts into focus—this is the first jazz biography that rises to the complexity of its subject and has the scale to match the story. And Shorter had quite the life story.
“Zero gravity is to say and do things in the present moment.”
His studies on the clarinet and saxophone as a youth led to a precocious career that quickly caught the attention of jazz legends Horace Silver, then Art Blakey, and finally Miles Davis—Shorter supercharged every group he joined. He co-founded the seminal band Weather Report, with Joe Zawinul. Herbie Hancock, who introduced him to Buddhism, said, “He’s the wise sage.” Shorter and his collaborators saw jazz as a consciously progressive force in an era of deep challenges and conflicts. He always kept exploring and expanding, working with Joni Mitchell, Milton Nascimento, and Steely Dan, among others, and then going on to write and perform orchestral works and original works for opera. He says at one point, “Jazz is like saying ‘once upon a time…’ then fill in the rest…close your eyes and there’s the movie.”
“I’m in pursuit of something called indestructible happiness.”
Featuring intimate conversations with Shorter and informative contributions from Hancock, Mitchell, the surprising and ebullient Neil deGrasse Tyson, Sonny Rollins, Carlos Santana, Marcus Miller, Don Was, Ron Carter, Dave Holland, and others, the film uses animation, re-enactments, and lots and lots of great music given pride of place to tell the story. It’s all skillfully crafted through impressive editing, visualizations, and sound design, and benefits greatly from the director’s nearly thirty year association and friendship with Shorter.
![[poster with white Lunana text alongside red calligraphy, in front of small, rural children sitting at a table with a black yak in background]](https://buddhistfilmfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/at-festivals-lunana-poster.jpg)
Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom, the feature film debut by Pawo Choyning Dorji, had its U.S. theatrical premiere in selected cities, and is now streaming on several platforms, including Netflix. The film was the Opening Night presentation at the International Buddhist Film Festival 2021 in December, and was nominated for the Best International Feature Academy Award®.
This nomination is the first for Bhutan. The film was only the second title ever submitted by Bhutan for consideration; the first was The Cup, by Khyentse Norbu, in 1999.
The film was shot on location in the most remote village of Bhutan, the last Buddhist kingdom. Working without electricity or running water, director Dorji selected his cast from local nonprofessionals and fashioned an instant neorealist classic.
The story concerns an urban Bhutanese school teacher who is sent to a very rural village to complete his obligatory public service before he can leave for a life in Australia, where he hopes to pursue a musical career. Bhutan is known as the nation that measures its Gross National Happiness rather than GNP, but a village elder notes sadly that as sweet as life in Bhutan is, the young people now seek happiness elsewhere. Not just a fish-out-of-water story, it’s a marvelous blend of serious and whimsical, with the special sauce of Bhutan’s astounding landscapes. Beautifully shot, with wonderful music, and a winning cast of villagers and children (plus the yak…).
Dorji, a professional still photographer, was previously the assistant director for Bhutan native filmmaker Khyentse Norbu’s dramatic feature Vara: A Blessing, and was producer of that director’s Hema Hema: Sing Me A Song While I Wait (IBFF 2017), which was filmed in Bhutan.
Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom is now streaming on Netflix, Apple TV, Amazon Prime, Vudu, Google Play, YouTube, and Kanopy in the USA.
Karuna
April 1, 2021
![[montage of smiling man with bald head and glasses in red and gold robes, and six asian women doing assorted jobs against band of landscape that fades into a beige background with small blocks of text in maroon, black, and green, and the words karuna and november 20 larger in maroon]](https://buddhistfilmfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/now-streaming-karuna-poster.jpg)
Tricycle’s Film Club for subscribers is featuring for April the new documentary from Tzu Chi USA, Karuna, about the work of Tibetan Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard and Karuna-Shechen.
The documentary traces the path of compassion in action, as practiced by Karuna-Shechen, the Nepal-based nonprofit founded by Ricard and Shechen Rabjam Rinpoche. We meet several women who share their stories of lives transformed through the organization’s assistance, and we discover how compassionate aid must intertwine with wisdom, which in Matthieu’s view, means supporting women’s empowerment and advocating voluntary simplicity. Ricard says, “At the heart of Buddhism is compassion, if possible, imbued with wisdom.”
Ricard is well-known as Time Magazine’s “Happiest man in the world,” and is a renowned photographer whose images are sold to support the work of Karuna-Shechen. Born in France, and a PhD in molecular biology, he’s the bestselling author of several books, including Happiness, The Monk and the Philosopher, and three critically acclaimed photography books.
Karuna is the latest documentary in Tzu Chi USA’s On the Buddha’s Path film series about socially engaged Buddhism. The full series is described, with trailers, on their website.
The Tricycle Film Club is available to all subscribers. Visit their site for subscription information.
Sing Me A Song
January 15, 2021
![[poster of seated young monk holding cell phone near sead woman and child against a light green painted wall under brown Sing Me A Song text]](https://buddhistfilmfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/at-festivals-sing-me-a-song-poster.jpg)
Sing Me A Song, the follow-up documentary feature from Happiness director Thomas Balmès, is now streaming on all the major TVOD (rental) platforms. The film is a continuation of the story of teenage Bhutanese Buddhist monk Peyangki, last seen as a playful 8-year-old living in a monastery.
This time Peyangki is in thrall to his smartphone, and his fellow young monks seem to have little supervision as they play video games on their phones, even during monastery rituals. And Peyangki goes even further when he becomes enamored of a female singer he finds online. His rash decision to seek her out IRL [in real life] away from the monastery in Thimpu takes us on a journey through a rapidly changing Bhutan.
The film reveals a serious breakdown of traditional values among the young in Bhutan, with all the banal temptations of the electronic world taking over at breathtaking speed since the modest opening of the nation to the outside world only a few years ago. Peyangki is challenged by the reality he encounters outside the monastery, and an older monk gives him a stark choice.
The film’s title seems to be an homage to filmmaker Khyentse Norbu’s last feature, Hema Hema: Sing Me A Song While I Wait, and this film also suggests that director’s first film, The Cup, in its neorealist depiction of young Buddhist monks in a monastery.
Sing Me A Song is brilliantly filmed, with excellent sound editing, pacing, and music. Peyangki’s experiences offer us a unique, but also allegoric sense of the dynamics at play in the developing world, even within the Buddhist monasteries.
Trailer
A conversation with director Thomas Balmès.
Becoming Who I Was
November 7, 2018
![[movie poster with becoming who i was text in grey against a snowy mountainous background with young boy and elderly man both dressed warmly in shades of red holding hands and gazing upward]](https://buddhistfilmfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/now-streaming-becoming-who-i-was-poster.jpg)
Surprise festival circuit and U.S. theatrical hit Becoming Who I Was is now streaming on iTunes. Dramatic footage from Ladakh enlivens this story of reincarnation and separation by Moon Chang-yong and Jeon Jin.
Filmed over eight years in northern India’s sparsely populated and mountainous Ladakh region, the film follows an impoverished young boy who was identified as the reincarnation of an esteemed, high-ranking Tibetan monk. Born displaced from his original monastery in Tibet, the boy is denied his rightful place. Amid growing doubts and mounting expectations in the community, the boy and his elderly godfather embark on a gruelling, improbable trek across India to return the young monk-to-be to his rightful monastery before it becomes too late.
We witness an incredibly intimate bond of friendship between a future religious leader and his godfather, whose devotion and selflessness in care for the boy is moving. Striking drone shots use the powerful magnitude of the vast landscape, particularly in the final moments in snowy mountains. Becoming Who I Was is an evocative exploration of culture, tradition, and identity.
Hema Hema: Sing Me A Song While I Wait
July 24, 2018
![[film poster with hema hema in red type, sing me a song while I wait in white type, over an image of five masked men, some with bow and arrow, some with musical instruments, in a sunlit forest]](https://buddhistfilmfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/news-hema-hema-poster-masks.jpg)
Khyentse Norbu’s most recent film (he is the director of The Cup, Travellers & Magicians, and Vara: A Blessing) had its international premiere at the Locarno Film Festival and its North American premiere at Toronto International Film Festival. Hema Hema: Sing Me A Song While I Wait is now streaming on Vimeo-On-Demand.
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.
The new film was shot on location in rural Bhutan, and stars Thinley Dorji, Tshering Dorji, and Sadon Lhamo. Noted still photographer Pawo Choyning Dorji and Sarah Chen are the producers, and the cinematographer was Jigme Tenzing. Most of the actors perform wearing beautiful masks throughout the film.
Uniquely among his films, this project was funded via a Kickstarter campaign that raised nearly $150,000 from over 800 backers around the world. Film veteran Jeremy Thomas, the executive producer (and well known as Bernardo Bertolucci’s producer), said in Locarno, “He…has enormous film knowledge; the story that he’s telling in this film has a credibility to it, because of his telling the story. It’s the start of a man’s [spiritual] journey to act the way you would act if you had no identity.”
The Last Dalai Lama?
July 9, 2018
![[poster with The Last Dalai Lama? in red type left of a black and white close up of an elderly man's head, against a dark background]](https://buddhistfilmfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/news-the-last-dalai-lama-poster.jpg "The Last Dalai Lama? poster")
The Last Dalai Lama?, the documentary directed by Mickey Lemle featuring the 14th Dalai Lama, is now streaming on iTunes after a successful twenty city theatrical run in the US last year.
The film is a comprehensive update of the director’s groundbreaking Compassion in Exile (1991) profile of the Dalai Lama, with an intimate look at the enduring good humor and gentle wisdom of His Holiness, now eighty-one.
Addressing his own death, the Dalai Lama considers the challenges of the prospect of his reincarnation, with Tibet still under Chinese control; his urgency and dedication come through powerfully. The Last Dalai Lama? was filmed on location in India and the US, and features vivid archival footage, with an original score by Philip Glass and Tenzin Choegyal.
Mindfulness: Be Happy Now Available on VOD
March 14, 2016
![[black text within enso on white background, Mindfulness: Be Happy Now, happiness is just a breath away]](https://buddhistfilmfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/mindfulness-be-happy-now-poster.jpg "Mindfulness: Be Happy Now poster")
Mindfulness: Be Happy Now is a new film featuring Thich Nhat Hanh, Sister Chan Khong, Oliver Stone, Cesar Milan, Sharon Stone, and Deepak Chopra. It is now available on major VOD platforms Amazon, Vudu, iTunes, XBox, and Google Play.
The film presents a range of observations about the practice and benefits of mindfulness meditation. The film was produced and directed by Hollywood producer Lawrence Kasanoff, who is best known for big budget action and sci-fi films like Mortal Kombat, Beowulf, True Lies, and Terminator 2. He has studied and practiced mindfulness for over ten years and has said that the goal of the film was to share the practice of mindfulness with those who might not know where to start.
“You don’t have to sit under a tree and be a monk to do this,” Kasanoff told Huffington Post. “I think mindfulness is just doing one thing at a time, and that’s it. You can do a hundred things during the day, but just do them one at a time and be present in the moment.”
In the film, Thich Nhat Hanh says, “Mindfulness is the capacity to be truly there in the here and the now in order for you to get in touch with the wonders of life, so that you can truly live your life.” He adds, “If you don’t have peace, you cannot offer peace. If you don’t have calm, you cannot offer calm. If you don’t have compassion, you cannot offer compassion. Therefore you have to walk your talk. You have to do it for you first. When you are mindful, you enjoy more. You are truly there, and you live more deeply every moment of your daily life. And that’s not hard work—that is very pleasant.”
