Zen
Mya got divorced three years ago, and although everything ended well, she still feels pain. That's over now. She now feels the need to live in the moment and reinvent herself as a woman. Since then, she has been going on regular dates with many different men, although none of them seem to be successful.
A Touch of Zen
Yang Hui-zhen, a mysterious princess on the run from corrupt government officials, is joined in her endeavors by skilled Buddhist monks and an unambitious painter named Gu Sheng-zhai.
The Zen Diary
An essayist, he finds peace in his mountain life. His routine is pleasantly disturbed by occasional visits from Machiko, his editor and love interest, as he struggles to let go of his late wife's ashes.
Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East?
About three monks in a remote monastery; an aging master, a small orphan and a young man who left his city life to seek Enlightenment.
Kochuu
A film about modern Japanese architecture, its roots in the Japanese tradition and its impact on the Nordic building-tradition. Winding its way through visions of the future, traditions, nature, concrete, gardens and high-tech, KOCHUU tells us how contemporary Japanese architects strive to unite the ways of modern man with the old philosophies in astounding constructions. Interviews with, and works by, Japanese architects Tadad Ando, Kisho Kurokawa, Toyo Ito and Kazuo Shinohara and Scandinavian architects Sverre Fehn, Kristian Gullichsen and Juhani Pallasmaa.
Nightfur
Frank, an introspective astrophysics major, visits a remote lab to work with his mentor; doctor Roberts. After his arrival, he finds that Helen; a young woman seemingly from another world, a metaphysical realm, has been taken in by the doctor. The unexplainable phenomena that follow force Frank and doctor Roberts to look at life from a different angle.
Verdiana
After a big fight, a couple wakes up with an unbelievable problem: he can't speak and she can't hear anything. Doctors and exams are useless. A female Zen Master and a very special plant come to their aid.
Zen
In the early 1200s, Dogen brought Chinese Zen philosophy to Japan, and established the Japanese Zen school of Buddhism. He taught that a person was capable of realizing Buddhahood within himself, by way of Zazen. Zazen is extended hours of sitting and meditating to achieve a state of “Mu” (nothingness, or empty existence).
Deliverance
Two monks on a mission choose very different paths
Enlightenment Guaranteed
Two middle aged German brothers - one New Age and recently divorced, the other uptight and sceptical - travel to a Zen monastery in Japan in search of enlightenment, or perhaps just in search of themselves.
Thousand Cranes
The entangled relations between the son of a seductive tea-ceremony teacher and the women in his father's life. Based on the novel by Kawabata Yasunari.
How to Cook Your Life
A Zen priest in San Francisco and cookbook author use Zen Buddhism and cooking to relate to everyday life.
Gottlos Beten
In a small chapel in Zug, Switzerland, a legend tells of a hidden treasure. There is only one rule: remain silent, and in time, the treasure will be yours. But the moment the silence is broken, it is lost forever. What if the treasure was never gold or jewels, but the chapel itself—a place where silence is still possible? Perhaps we have forgotten how to remain silent, and with that, we risk losing one of the last places that still allows it. Gottlos Beten follows the decline of a sacred place.
Kensho at the Bedfellow
Reeling from his sister’s death, a NYC playwright searches for fulfillment in a sex-and-drug filled odyssey. When he’s reunited with a childhood love, their shared journey of self-discovery catalyzes a profound, existential awakening.
Aeon
Dealing heavily with perceptions of time, Aeon documents the urban cityscape as Wellington transforms through a zen-influenced eternal cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth within a 24-hour period.
Max Gimblett: Original Mind
Max Gimblett: Original Mind documents the life and process of eccentric, creative genius Max Gimblett. One of New Zealand’s most successful and internationally prominent living painters, Gimblett has been working in America since 1962. The filmmakers spent a week in Gimblett’s Soho loft where he and his devoted studio assistants generously revealed the techniques and philosophy behind his beautiful art.
Conversation with Myself
Alan Watts talks about our perception of the world, and how we derive metaphysics from it. Watts recorded this video in 1971 as a pilot for a public television series in the United States.
What Was I Before
A young man experiences his last few minutes of singular consciousness while examining a wild falcon he has studied for months.
ZeNistaN A Live Documentary Experience
A live documentary experience built around archival footage of the 90s psychedelic band ZeN and their 1996 concert at Cihangir Park. Directed by Elif Dizdaroğlu, the event evolved into a layered performance through Murat Ertel’s improvised talk and music. Blending archival footage with live Q&A and performance, the night collapsed the distance between past and present audiences. Now available on Postbellek, the project became a collective trip back into the spirit of the 90s.
My Life Is My Message
Thich Nhat Hanh, monk, zen teacher, writer and peace activist, born in Vietnam in 1926, was the organiser of a non-violent resistance movement after the outbreak of the Vietnam War. We follow Thich Nhat Hanh around the time of Memorial Day of 9/11 in Washington D.C., where he teaches Members of Congress the concepts of ‘Mindful Living’. He tries to convey his message of peace straight to the centre of world power. Thousands of people participate each year in the meditation retreats led by Thich Nhat Hanh. In his monastic community Plum Village in the south of France, his home base, he brings groups of Palestinians and Israelis together. Horrible experiences are exchanged and discussed for the first time, in the hope that people may come to recognize each other’s suffering.