International Buddhist Film Festival Showcase 2010 December 9, 2010

International Buddhist Film Festival Showcase 2010
Dec 9 – 19, 2010

Thu, Dec 9, 7:30pm: Shugendo Now

Sun, Dec 12, 2pm: Dream Window: Reflections on the Japanese Garden and Inland Sea

Thu, Dec 16, 7:30pm: Lucia Rijker: Boxer, Buddhist

Sun, Dec 19, 2pm: Seeing Searching Being

The International Buddhist Film Festival is the world’s leading presenter of Buddhist-themed and Buddhist-inspired cinema. They present and promote films of all kinds: features, documentaries, animation, experimental work, children’s films and television programs. For this series, IBFF presents four works with wide-ranging themes and styles; including rare films by Ken Burns, and the story of a bad-ass Buddhist boxer. IBFF will also present films at the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center from Dec 2 – 9.

Shugendo Now
By Jean-Marc Abela and Mark Patrick McGuire
US Premiere!
Filmmakers in person
There is a unique school of Japanese asceticism called shugendo, the Way of Acquiring Power, a blend of Shinto, Daoism and Buddhism. Followers practice arduous rituals in mountain wildernesses and are deeply committed to protecting the natural environment. The film is a poetic and intimate journey into a rarely seen world between the developed and the wild, between the present and the infinite. (2009, 91 min, digital video)

Dream Window: Reflections on the Japanese Garden
By John Junkerman
Shown with:
Inland Sea
By Lucille Carra
Hiro Narita in person (Never Cry Wolf, Star Trek VI, Honey I Shrunk the Kids)
Sumptuously photographed on 35mm film, Dream Window offers us the art of the Japanese garden as we’ve never seen or appreciated it before. Written by Japan native Peter Grilli and scored by the late master composer Toru Takemitsu, this is a rare public screening of a contemporary classic. (1992, 58 min, 35mm)

Inland Sea, based on famed Japan commentator Donald Richie’s book of the same name and narrated by him, New York Times reviewer Vincent Canby said “nearly everything the camera finds prompts contemplation.” Hiro Narita’s beautiful cinematography is the key to the striking and often surprising view of a very different Japan than is usually seen in the West. This rare screening is the launch of the 20th anniversary re-release of the film. (1991, 56 min, 35mm)

Lucia Rijker: Boxer, Buddhist
By George Schouten
US Premiere!
Undefeated boxer and kickboxer Lucia Rijker has been dubbed ‘the Most Dangerous Woman in the World. She played opposite (and trained) Hilary Swank in the film Million Dollar Baby, speaks four languages and…she’s a Buddhist. The film brings us into the turbulent period of choices following her big-screen success. Rijker shares herself intimately, discussing the seeming dichotomy of her Buddhist path with the raw violence of boxing. (2005, 73 min, digital video)

Seeing Searching Being
By Ken Burns
West Coast Premiere!
Dr. Jacob Needleman in person
William Segal was a philosopher, publisher, writer and painter who searched relentlessly and compassionately for meaning in this chaotic and distracted time. The student of such diverse masters as G.I. Gurdjieff and D.T. Suzuki, Segal helped bring Eastern and Western spiritual traditions together, always stressing what connected humanity rather than what differentiated it. In the last decade of his life, Segal befriended filmmaker Ken Burns, and the two collaborated on this unique trilogy of short films. Dr. Jacob Needleman, San Francisco State professor and close friend of William Segal, will be at the screening in person for a Q&A session. (1992-99, 73 min, digital video)

Where:
International Buddhist Film Festival Showcase 2010 – 701 Mission St., San Francisco, CA 94103 – YBCA Screening Room

Public Info:
415-978-2787 or ybca.org

$8 regular; $6 students, seniors, teachers & YBCA members

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