For the weekend post let’s talk about some Dharma movies both old and new. I put the trailers for the films at the bottom of this post.
The latest, “The Sun Behind the Clouds: Tibet’s Struggle for Freedom” has been gaining a lot of attention at the recent Palm Springs Film Festival. Most noteworthy is China’s decision to pull two of their films out of the festival. According to the review in Variety, it seems the Chinese did not want this film to not be shown. The trailer opens with some hand held protest footage from March 2008 and goes on to show police arresting people. It goes on to include footage from HH Dalai Lama as well as some counter footage from anti-Dalai Lama groups. I like hip hop so the Tibetan rapper is cool, when Ifind out who he is I will post it here. Overall I am very excited to see this film and if any of you have seen please let me know what you think. Check out the website for the film here.
Next film is “The Unmistaken Child.” I saw this in the theater before retreat last summer. Wow, it is a great film and I really liked it. After the death of Lama Konchog, the film follows his main student, Tenzin Zopa, finding his reincarnation. What I like most about the film is seeing the process of how finding reincarnate lamas works. A very memorable scene from the film is probably the last scene, where the young Lama Konchog and Tenzin are cooking. Overall this is a very enjoyable, light-hearted film I think you will enjoy. Check out the website for the film here.
And finally an older film I recently discovered is “Himalaya.” The film, a narrative, follows Dolpo salt traders as they trek across the mountains but more importantly shows the struggle between the ways of the old caravaners and the new ones. I really liked the juxtaposition of the father and his son, the monk. The film also gives a glimpse of their daily life and the scenic shots and the soundtrack for this film is amazing. Not a light-hearted film but not too heavy either. Check out the website for the film here.
Enjoy!
I just read your review about these three movies and I had a thought! I really like your blog because you cover a variety of topics and you do that spontaneously. I read several blogs and very often the blogger tries to be clever and you can see right through it. Anyway, you know what else is cool about your blog? The fact that you have a variety of topics makes your blog name more meaningful too! Think about it… “Many Flakes…” could stand for “Different Topics,” and “One Bowl…” The “Bowl” is Buddhism! So, your blog title is perfect: “Different Topics about Buddhism!”