The Rafael again partners with the Buddhist Film Foundation to showcase three new programs from the International Buddhist Film Festival, which will be screened on Sunday afternoons in June.
Presented by Buddhist Film Foundation & California Film Institute
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ZEN FOR NOTHING
SUNDAY, JUNE 10 • 4:15
IN PERSON: FILMMAKER WERNER PENZEL & ZESHO SUSAN O’CONNELL, SF ZEN CENTER
The title may be provocative, but this masterful documentary immerses us in life at a Japanese Zen monastery over three seasons of a year. Swiss novice Sabine arrives at Antaiji and her learning process begins: how to bow, sit, move, behave. But there’s more to life in the monastery than meditation, farming and maintenance—there are also picnics, music and Wi-Fi! Beautifully photographed, this film could be described as Into Great Silence meets Enlightenment Guaranteed, with Oakland-based composer Fred Frith performing an elegant score. In Japanese and German with English subtitles. Director: Werner Penzel. (Germany/Japan 2016) 100 min. plus discussion.
ADMISSION TO THIS PROGRAMS: $15 General | $13 Seniors & Youth | $10 CFI Members
TO PURCHASE TICKETS, click the showtime on the date of your choice
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HONEYGIVER AMONG THE DOGS
SUNDAY, JUNE 17 • 4:15
IN PERSON: GAETANO KAZUO MAIDA & SKYPE WITH FILMMAKER DECHEN RODER
The first feature by Bhutanese Dechen Roder is her feminist twist on film noir. It’s also a beautiful and provocative journey into contemporary Bhutan, the last Buddhist kingdom, making the case that a creative cinema community is growing there. When the abbess of a Buddhist nunnery goes missing, policeman Kinley gets on the case, and his number one suspect is sexy Choden, who regales him with legends about enlightened female deities fighting social oppression. He dismisses her stories as “rumors,” given that he eyes Buddhist murals with suspicion rather than awe. In Dzongkha with English subtitles. Camera: Jigme Tenzing. Writer/Director: Dechen Roder. (Bhutan 2016) 132 min.
ADMISSION TO THIS PROGRAMS: $15 General | $13 Seniors & Youth | $10 CFI Members
TO PURCHASE TICKETS, click the showtime on the date of your choice
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Click image to view trailer
MY SON TENZIN
SUNDAY, JUNE 24 • 4:15
IN PERSON: FILMMAKER TSULTRIM DORJEE & ACTOR/MUSICIAN TSERING DORJEE BAWA IN PERFORMANCE
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 an 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. Directors: Tsultrim Dorjee, Tashi Wangchuk. (US 2017) 70 min. plus music performance and discussion.
ADMISSION TO THIS PROGRAMS: $15 General | $13 Seniors & Youth | $10 CFI Members
TO PURCHASE TICKETS, click the showtime on the date of your choice
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