The Program

The 2009 Melbourne Buddhist Film Festival program offers six wonderful films - five documentaries and a classic animated drama - as well as a traditional Japanese tea ceremony and a public talk on Buddhist symbolism. All screenings and events will be held at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) in Federation Square.

The festival runs from Friday 30 October to Sunday 1 November 2009.

To book tickets, please visit the ACMI website from 5th October.

Friday 30th October and Saturday 31st October, 6.15pm

 
The Dhamma Brothers

Director: Jenny Phillips, Anne Marie Stein and Andrew Kukura
Running time: 76 mins
Country: US
Year: 2007
Language: English

A dramatic tale of human potential and transformation, this documentary chronicles the stories of prison inmates at Donaldson Correctional Facility through and after an arduous Vipassana meditation program. It has the power to dismantle stereotypes about men behind prison bars, and n the words of Sister Helen Prejean (Dead Man Walking), ‘it gives you hope for the human race’.

Visit the official website 

Friday 30th October, 9.15pm


Meditate and Destroy

Director: Sarah Fisher
Running time: 80 minutes
Country: US
Year: 2007
Language: English

This film contains strong language and drug references.

A documentary about rebellion, punk rock, and spirituality through the eyes of best-selling author Noah Levine (Dharma Punx, Against the Stream). This powerful film examines the driving forces that transformed Levine from an addicted rebel into a Buddhist teacher and community leader. Tattoos, motorbikes, and a punk rock soundtrack provide the backdrop for an inspirational story of finding new paths even in our darkest hours.

Visit the official website

Saturday 31st October, 12.45pm


Wheel of Time

Director: Werner Herzog
Running time: 81 minutes
Year: 2003
Language: English with some English subtitles

Veteran director Werner Herzog’s documentation of Tibetan Buddhist tradition, covering a massive Buddhist festival in India, the ritual construction of a sand mandala in Austria, and Buddhist pilgrimage to a sacred mountain. “With minimal explanation, it puts you right in the center” (Stephen Holden, New York Times).

Listen to Werner Herzog discussing Wheel of Time on BBC radio

 

Saturday 31st October, 2.00-3.00pm

Public talk: Unlock the Buddha Code 

Gain insight into the religious, cultural and artistic aspects of Buddha figures in this entertaining talk by the Senior Venerable Thich Phuoc Tan OAM, Abbot of Quang Minh Temple in Braybrook.

Visit the Quang Minh Temple website

Saturday 31st October, 3.45pm

Amongst White Clouds

Amongst White Clouds

Director: Edward A Burger
Running time: 86 minutes
Country: China
Year: 2005
Language: English and Chinese with English subtitles

An intimate insider’s look at students and masters living in scattered retreats dotting China’s Zhongnan Mountain Range. These peaks have been home to recluses since the time of the Yellow Emperor, some 5000 years ago. It was widely thought that the tradition was all but wiped out, but this film emphatically and beautifully shows us otherwise. The film includes interviews with several students and masters about their practice and insights towards enlightenment, and the simplicity of their lives.

Visit the official website

Sunday 1st November, 12.45pm

 
The Devotion of Matthieu Ricard

Director: George Schouten,
Babeth M. VanLoo
Running time: 60 minutes
Country: The Netherlands
Year: 2008
Language: English with some English subtitles

 Matthieu Ricard left a promising career in cellular genetics in France 40 years ago to devote himself to study Buddhism in the Himalayas. Since then he has lived with the greatest living teachers of that tradition. He was a close disciple of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, and since Khyentse Rinpoche's death in 1991 he has devoted his life, together with Rabjam Shechen Rinpoche, to the completion of projects initiated by Khyentse Rinpoche.

A best-seller author (The Monk and the Philosopher, Happiness) and well-known photographer, Ricard captures the spiritual life of his surroundings with his camera. As a trained scientist and Buddhist monk, he mediates the dialogue between Tibetan Buddhism and the West with understanding and compassion.

This film explores the many phases and aspects of Matthieu Ricard’s life, ‘the happiest man alive’ as Time magazine calls him. We see him accompanying HH the Dalai Lama as his personal interpreter, as an active participant in the current scientific research on the effects of meditation on the brain, and working on humanitarian projects in different locations in Asia, including Tibet, Nepal and India.

 

Sunday 1st November, 2.00-3.00pm

  
Traditional Japanese tea ceremony

Join us for this special Buddhist Film Festival event. Numbers are limited to 100,
so book early - on the ACMI website. Presented by the Chado Urasenke Association.

 

Sunday 1st November, 3.45pm


The Book of the Dead

Director: Kihachiro Kawamoto
Running time: 70 mins
Country: Japan
Year: 2005
Language: Japanese with English subtitles

This exquisite, haunting Japanese stop-motion animation drama is based on a tale from the Nara period (8th century). A young noblewoman studies the new religion of Buddhism, hand-copying sutras (Buddhist scriptures), trying to understand the teachings of the Buddha.

One evening, after copying a thousand pages of sutras, she sees a radiant figure above a distant mountain. Believing this figure to be the Buddha, she follows him to a temple, where she realises that the figure is the executed prince Otsu, who wanders in torment between this world and the next. The two forge a bond, which ultimately allows the prince to find rest. The director, Kihachiro Kawamoto, has said that the film is dedicated to all the innocent people who have died in recent wars.

Read an interview with Kihachiro Kawamoto in Midnight Eye

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