Start your day with a fresh perspective
Buddhist films and discussion for the Tricycle Community
Film Club Archive
In a small yurt on the outskirts of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia’s capital city, 12-year-old Galaa’s life is turned upside down when his father dies in a tragic accident. As his family struggles to make ends meet, he drops out of school to sell goods on the black market. His mother urges the hip-hop loving tween to continue his education, but torn between tradition and modernity, Galaa sets out to become a monk and move to the monastery.
Three determined women take on the patriarchy by reviving an abandoned Buddhist tradition and becoming the first fully-ordained Theravada Buddhist nuns in their nations’ modern histories.
Once a Maoist child soldier, Mira Rai, a young woman from rural Nepal, overcame the challenges of an impoverished upbringing to become an internationally recognized trail runner. Today, she inspires children in her home country and abroad to pursue their dreams.
This month at Tricycle, we’re featuring five short films from around the world that you won’t find anywhere else. Among the cinematic journeys in store, we’ll trail a group of Chinese Buddhist nuns on pilgrimage in the Canadian Rockies, watch people try out virtual reality for the first time, and reflect on the difficulty of living in the present moment with Little Vaysha, a young girl with a double-edged gift.
Every 20 years, locals tear down Ise Jingu, one of the most important Shinto shrine complexes in Mie Prefecture, Japan, only to rebuild it entirely from scratch. Acclaimed Japanese photographer Masaaki Miyazawa explores this 1,300-year-old ritual in his debut feature. Miyazawa takes viewers on a meditative journey through Japan’s cypress forests, mountains, and coasts, where coexisting with the natural world is part of enduring Buddhist environmentalism.
In Mickey Lemle’s new award-winning documentary, The Last Dalai Lama?, the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, takes a look at his legacy as he enters the ninth decade of his life. Rather than presenting a linear story, the film offers an endearing, candid portrait of the Tibetan leader’s life by weaving together historical photos, rare interviews with an all-star cast—including Thupten Jinpa, Matthieu Ricard, and Daniel Goleman—and archival footage from Lemle’s 1992 biopic, Compassion in Exile.
