Buddhist Films

Buddhist Films

	Little Buddha List Price: $9.99 Sale Price: $16.85
	An american family is visited by a tibetan monk who believes that their young son may be the reincarnation of the dalai lama. They do not believe it is possible but the endearing monks who bring the news are hard to resist...

	Kung Fu Hustle (Music for the Motion Picture) List Price: $17.98 Sale Price: $199.89
	Set amid the chaos of pre-revolutionary China, small time thief, Sing, aspires to be one of the sophisticated and ruthless Axe Gang whose underworld activities overshadow the city. Stumbling across a crowded apartment complex aptly known as "Pig Sty Alley," Sing attempts to extort money from one of the ordinary locals, but the neighbors are not what they appear...

	Warriors of Heaven and Earth Sale Price: $9.99

	Ossian: American Boy Tibetan Monk [VHS] List Price: $20.00 Sale Price: $19.95

	Buddhist Fist [VHS] List Price: $19.98
	Director and martial arts choreographer Yuen Woo-ping is best known to American audiences for transforming Laurence Fishburne and Keanu Reeves into kick-ass kung fu cyber-warriors in The Matrix, but this Hong Kong pro has been turning out some of the best fight scenes in Asian cinema since 1971...

	The Buddha: The Story of Siddhartha List Price: $24.99 Sale Price: $12.37
	This revealing documentary explores the origins of Buddhism, the world's fourth largest religion, through a detailed chronicle of the renowned Indian sage who obtained enlightenment beneath a fig tree...

	Into Great Silence (Two-Disc Set) List Price: $29.99 Sale Price: $16.75
	Nestled deep in the postcard-perfect French Alps, the Grande Chartreuse is considered one of the world s most ascetic monasteries. In 1984, German filmmaker Philip Gröning wrote to the Carthusian order for permission to make a documentary about them...

	Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring List Price: $14.99 Sale Price: $6.99
	Working miracles with only a single set and a handful of characters, Korean director Kim Ki-Duk creates a wise little gem of a movie. As the title suggests, the action takes place in five distinct episodes, but sometimes many years separate the seasons...

Planting Seeds: Practicing Mindfulness with Children List Price: $28.95 Sale Price: $17.97

Planting Seeds: Practicing Mindfulness with Children is the fruit of decades of development and innovation in the Plum Village community's collective practice with children. Based on Thich Nhat Hanh's thirty years of teaching mindfulness and compassion to parents, teachers, and children, the book and enclosed CD covers a wide range of contemplative and fun activities parents and educators can do with their children or students...

Hardcore Zen: Punk Rock, Monster Movies and the Truth About Reality List Price: $14.95 Sale Price: $4.00

Hardcore Zen is not your typical "Zen" book. Brad Warner, the young punk who grew up to be a Zen master, spares no one — just like Reality itself. This bold new approach to the Why of Zen Buddhism is as strongly grounded in the tradition of Zen as it is utterly revolutionary: Warner's voice is hilarious, and he calls on the wisdom of everyone from punk and pop culture icons to the Buddha himself to make sure his points come through loud and clear...

Fundraising for Southeast Asia Documentary Underway

Stories Without Borders: The Documentary is an educational documentary project that believes through exploring the stories that we share we can better understand our common humanity across time and cultures. Its first project is to record the influence of the Sanskrit epics the Ramayana and Mahabharata across the cultures and religions of South and Southeast Asia while celebrating the diversity of the people and places that it chronicles. It will also produce an accompany text.

"We want to show that there are stories that are loved and shared across cultures, and these stories can be unifying and humanizing across times and places," said director Andrea Frazier. "We want to be part of telling those stories ourselves through the medium of film."

Covering the origins of these epics and their contemporary roles in India, it will trace their influence first to Java, Indonesia where reenactments and retellings continue today in this mostly Muslim island. From there, it will travel to the Hindu island of Bali where these epics form a central part of religious identity and worship.

From there it heads to the Southeast Asian peninsula to Malaysia where today shadow puppet reenactments continue in the deeply conservative Muslim states of Kelantan and Terengganu. Next, it is to Thailand where it demonstrates how these stories play a role in the lives of Thai Theravada Buddhists from incorporation in architecture to traditional dancing. From there it moves on to the mysterious Kingdom of Cambodia and the communist state of Laos to see how these Hindu epics continue to form a central part of the many of the diverse cultures one encounters there.

It is the brainchild of Andrea Fraizer, a videographer, filmmaker and director who is currently with FCA-TV in the United States, and Jarrod Brown, a philosopher, scholar and educator who has spent much of the last decade living, researching, and working among these cultures.  The group also maintains a Web site with information about the upcoming film as well as educational resources for those doing comparative studies of the epics.

About the Author

Jarrod Brown resides in Honolulu, Hawai'i where he is pursuing his Ph.D. in comparative philosophy supported by a prestigious Jack Kent Cooke Foundation scholarship. Able to get around in Malay and Indonesian, Jarrod is currently studying Sanskrit and Khmer and can be polite in Tamil. Jarrod holds a Certificate of Southeast Asian Studies from Universiti Sains Malaysia, a BA in Philosophy from Berea College, and is currently Executive Director of Woodford and Wheeler International Cultural Consultants, Inc.
where Jarrod helps organizations and individuals better communicate and work across cultures.

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