Dalai Lama Renaissance
Encyclopedia
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
, produced and directed by Khashyar Darvich
Khashyar Darvich
Khashyar Darvich is a documentary film producer and director. He directed a documentary film about the Dalai Lama, "Dalai Lama Renaissance," which is narrated by actor Harrison Ford....
, and narrated by actor Harrison Ford
Harrison Ford
Harrison Ford is an American film actor and producer. He is famous for his performances as Han Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy and as the title character of the Indiana Jones film series. Ford is also known for his roles as Rick Deckard in Blade Runner, John Book in Witness and Jack Ryan in...
. The film documents the Dalai Lama's meeting with the self-titled "Synthesis" group, made up of 40 Western "renaissance" thinkers who hope to use the meeting to change the world and resolve many of the world's problems. The meeting took place at the Dalai Lama's home in Dharamsala
Dharamsala
Dharamshala or Dharamsala is a city in northern India. It was formerly known as Bhagsu; it is the winter seat of government of the state of Himachal Pradesh and the district headquarters of the Kangra district....
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
in September, 1999.
The film won 12 awards, was the official selection in over 40 international film festivals, and played in cinemas in over 100 cities in the U.S., as well as other countries in the world like Germany, Austria, Switzerland.
It was also released in theaters in Taiwan in June 2009. The film received positive front page Chinese language press in Taiwan. However, the People's Daily presented an article criticizing the film.
Among the Western thinkers who meet the Dalai Lama are: quantum physicists Fred Alan Wolf
Fred Alan Wolf
Fred Alan Wolf is an American theoretical physicist specializing in quantum physics and the relationship between physics and consciousness. He is a former physics professor at San Diego State University, and more recently has helped to popularize science on the Discovery Channel...
and Amit Goswami
Amit Goswami
Amit Goswami is a theoretical nuclear physicist and member of The University of Oregon Institute for Theoretical Physics since 1968, teaching physics for 32 years...
(from the documentaries What the Bleep Do We Know and The Secret), social scientist Jean Houston
Jean Houston
Jean Houston is an American scholar, lecturer, author and philosopher who has helped pioneer and motivate the human potentials movement. As a teacher and visionary thinker, Houston holds conferences and seminars with social leaders, educational institutions and business organizations worldwide...
, and founder of Agape International Spiritual Center
Agape International Spiritual Center
Agape International Spiritual Center is a transdenominational congregation in Culver City, California. Founded in 1986 by Michael Bernard Beckwith, it currently has approximately 9,000 members who follow its New Thought spirituality. Beckwith leads the congregation along with his wife, Ricki...
church in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, Dr. Michael Beckwith
Michael Beckwith
Michael Beckwith is a New Thought minister, author, and founder of the Agape International Spiritual Center in Culver City, California, a New Thought church with a congregation estimated in excess of 8,000 members...
.
Through the film the audience sees the clash of egos that soon developed among the members of the group and their assistants, as each member attempts to mold the meeting to fit their own personal expectations. Ultimately they discover they can't hope to change the world until they undergo a personal transformation. Assisted by the often light-hearted musings of the Dalai Lama, each member comes away uniquely changed by their experience.
The film includes original music by Tibet
Tibet
Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
an musicians, as well as master sitarist Roop Verma, who studied under Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar , often referred to by the title Pandit, is an Indian musician and composer who plays the plucked string instrument sitar. He has been described as the best known contemporary Indian musician by Hans Neuhoff in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart.Shankar was born in Varanasi and spent...
and Ali Akbar Khan
Ali Akbar Khan
Ali Akbar Khan , often referred to as Khansahib or by the title Ustad , was a Hindustani classical musician of the Maihar gharana, known for his virtuosity in playing the sarod...
.