Encounters with Buddhist Cinema

From November 13th to 16th, Encounters with Buddhist Cinema returns to Rome's Pigneto district. This free film festival, now in its fifth edition, presents different films from twelve countries, including European and Italian premieres, exploring spirituality, the environment, identity, and nonviolent resistance.

This is a significant development for a project that, through the universal language of cinema, promotes a connection between different cultures, sensibilities, and spiritual traditions. Conceived by Maria Angela Falà, president of the Maitreya Foundation, with artistic direction by Italo Spinelli, the festival is promoted by the Maitreya Foundation, ICI, and Asiatica, with the support of the eight per thousand of the Italian Buddhist Union.

The program features 14 titles, including feature and medium-length films, fiction, and documentaries, from Bhutan, South Korea, Japan, India, England, Italy, Myanmar, Nepal, the Netherlands, Taiwan, Tibet, and the United States, with European and Italian premieres. At the heart of this fifth edition is a reflection on the profound meaning of the relationships that bind people to each other and to the world, the need to re-establish a balance with nature, the search for awareness, and the possibility of addressing the great contradictions of the present through the principles of nonviolence, solidarity, and respect for all life.

British director Colin Still will be the guest of the festival in Rome, on Sunday, November 15th at the Nuovo Cinema Aquila, presenting the documentary O Mother Gaia, dedicated to Gary Snyder, an American poet, environmentalist, and Buddhist, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and a central figure of the Beat Generation. Through his thought, the film explores the profound connection between poetry, spirituality, and ecology, a highly timely reflection on the future of the planet.

Furthermore, with its traveling dimension, the event strengthens its commitment to intercultural and interreligious dialogue by offering cinema capable of crossing geographical, cultural, and religious boundaries.

All films are screened in their original language with Italian subtitles.

The event is promoted by Roma Culture. Information and programme – www.cinemaaquila.it