The theme for BFFE 2018 will be ‘Radical Presence’.
Angel Kyodo Williams will visit the festival and there will be a special focus on women. Check for updates about the opening film, the program and the special event on the website ofBFFE 2018!
In the 13th Buddhist Film Festival Europe, under the direction of Babeth M. VanLoo, Buddhism, film, art and culture are brought together. This heart-warming meeting of people who are inspired by a careful selection of spiritual films, panels and art, will take place again this year in the beautiful space of the film museum EYE. Nothing gives more energy than feeling connected to a community of inspiring filmmakers and film-lovers in such a perfect location.
The Buddhist Film Festival Europe (BFFE) is a unique showcase for films and projects, panels and art that highlights the Buddhist culture of training in non-violence and altruism. For more than ten years, we have contributed with films and speakers to the growth of mindfulness, aiming at the creation of a more compassionate society.
The BFFE desperately needs your support to keep organising this special festival over and over again without a structural subsidy.
De nieuwe documentaire Veerkracht over spiritueel links in de VS is te zien op npo.nl. Mensenrechten staat onder druk in het huidige politieke klimaat van Amerika. Hoe kan het boeddhisme een bijdrage leveren aan de oplossing van de enorme identiteitscrisis waarin het land verkeert? In de documentaire worden Amerikanen gevolgd die vormgeven aan een groeiende beweging die staat voor het eind van white supremacy, theologisch kolonialisme en seksueel machtsmisbruik. – docu van Babeth M. VanLoo
Met o.a. angel Kyodo williams Sensei, oprichter van het Center for Transformative Change in Berkeley, California, en zenleraar bij het Brooklyn Zen Center, over antiracisme en spiritueel activisme; Robert Thurman, schrijver en professor op Columbia University NY, bepleit een sensitivity revolution in plaats van de huidige haat-revolutie; Charlene Carruthers, van Black Youth Project, over de LGBT-beweging en de bevrijding van de (zwarte) vrouw; Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, een 17 jarige native American milieuactivist en hiphop-artiest, over indigenous rights en het recht van de mensheid op schoon water; Lucia Rijker, actrice, coach, over het breken met de verslaving aan televisienieuws; Patrick Ferris, zanger/tekstschrijver van de band The Americans, over het rouwproces na de verkiezing.
‘The question is: how do we allow people to be deeply in touch with themselves, and allow them to become deeply in touch with others?
They have to cultivate their capacity for presence. Presence is Grand Central Station and the place people arrive from wherever they’ve originally come from – fear, anger, disappointment, anxiety. Through the practice of being present to their situations, to the suffering that they felt as a result, not to mention the power of being seen as others are present with them, they can then travel on to compassion, to courage, to caring, to love. … As you choose to be more present, you are more present. It allows us to see ourselves and others. By choosing presence we learn to let go of our own discomfort, and experienceing ourselves in a trusting way allows us to trust others more.’
Called “the most intriguing African-American Buddhist” by Library Journal, Rev. angel Kyodo williams Sensei, is an author, master trainer and founder of Center for Transformative Change. She has been bridging the worlds of personal transformation and justice since the publication of her critically-acclaimed book, Being Black: Zen and the Art of Living With Fearlessness and Grace. Her book was hailed as “an act of love” by Pulitzer Prize winner Alice Walker and “a classic” by Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield. Her new book, Radical Dharma, explores racial injustice as a barrier to collective awakening.
Ordained as a Zen priest, she is a Sensei, the second black woman recognized as a teacher in her lineage. She is a social visionary that applies wisdom teachings and practice to social issues. She sees Transformative Social Change as America’s next great movement. She is an early shaper and leading voice in that work and coined the name for the field. In recognition of her work, Rev. angel received the first Creating Enlightened Society Award from Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, the leader of the international Shambhala Community.
For over 15 years, she has deeply invested her time and energy to putting into practice her unwavering belief that the key to transforming society is transforming our inner lives. She has developed comprehensive systems for illuminating both practical personal change and the profoundly liberating potential of mindfulness, yoga, and somatic practices coupled with wisdom teachings. Calling for a paradigm shift that “changes the way change is done,” angel envisions the building of a presence-centered social justice movement as the foundation for personal freedom, a just society and the healing of divisions of race, class, faith and politic. – angelkyodowilliams.com
The theme for BFFE 2018 will be ‘Radical Presence’.
