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12th edition, September 29/30, and October 1, 2017
BEING HUMAN
Battleground Modernity –
Post modernity – Post religion – Post mindfulness
Post ego – Post me – Post you – Post other
For years BFFE aims to find and show films that relate to Buddhism as a living and vital, cultural presence in modernity. That is the practice of Buddhism engaging in the battle between ignorance and enlightenment.
BFFE 2017 opens with the film The Last Dalai Lama? directed by Mickey Lemle. It provides very intimate access with a portrait about a fearless and compassionate human being, who has been the most influential in the Buddha-dharma encounter with the west. Those that have encountered him in person know that he possesses the ability to know what other people need.
The Dalai Lama personifies that Tibetan Buddhism is both a religion and a science of the mind; he also shares his understanding of the nature of mind, and its part in the creation and alleviation of all of our suffering. Believing that this precious wisdom belongs to the world, twenty years ago the Dalai Lama challenged a select group of world-renowned neuroscientists and mind/brain researchers to look into the workings of the mind, and to prove scientifically that Buddhist methods for overcoming afflictive emotions are skills that can be learned by anyone. On Sunday afternoon a special event will take place in which Mind & Life Europe will share insights with regard to this.
Other films introduce us to the Art of Stillness, stimulating us to honour stillness and to build time-pockets of it into our lives. For many years access to information and movement seemed our greatest luxury; now it’s often freedom from information, the chance to sit still that feels like the ultimate reward. Where contemplation is not about turning your back on the world; it’s about stepping away now and then, so that you can see the world more clearly and love it more deeply.
Films with compelling human stories, ranging from Japan, Tibet, Myanmar, Bhutan, to the USA and the Netherlands, from dramatic features to contemporary documentaries and art film, exhibit authentic messengers of wisdom, stimulating courage and protest when injustice occurs. To reflect on why most adults in the west don’t practice it, even though meditation is our greatest gateway to everyday transcendence.
In the last twenty years, meditation and mindfulness have gone from being kind of cool to becoming omnipresent. Doing away with common misconceptions and neuro-mythology, authentic teachers demonstrate that the real payoffs are the lasting personality transformations that can be a result, beyond the pleasant states that mental exercises can produce, offering practical salvation and refuge from confusion and terror.
Please come and join us for celebrating contemplative cinema at the 12th Buddhist Film Festival Europe at EYE in Amsterdam. May we contribute to the welfare of all human beings.
With dedication, Babeth M. VanLoo, director BFFE
Come ! Join us ! Rejoice !
Your support is really needed to enable us to keep this festival going.
Join BFFE 2017 here
“You may find your way into the nature of mind through creativity; or you may come out from that nature, to express creativity. Both are the best of our mind’s potential.”
Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche
EYE
IJpromenade 1, 1031 KT Amsterdam
Program BFFE 2017
Participants BFFE 2017
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- Festival director Babeth VanLoo
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- Lama Choenyi and Lama Samten
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- Tsering Dorjee Bawa
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- Skype with director Mike Lemle
