In these times of crisis, there is an electric charge in the air, a burgeoning renewal amongst both people who have focused their lives on the spiritual, and those whose lives are centered around the struggle for change. Featuring Velcrow Ripper’s stunning cinematography, a compelling soundtrack, and dramatic stories of resistance and transformation, FIERCE LIGHT: WHEN SPIRIT MEETS ACTION is a feature documentary that captures the excitement of Spiritual Activism that is catalyzing the planet. Fueled by the belief that “another world” is possible, Ripper seeks out today’s stories to reveal what is possible when individuals, friends and strangers, faced with a world in crisis, rise to their absolute best.
While including passionate testimony from devoted activists such as author Alice Walker, actress Daryl Hannah, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and, most poignantly, environmental activist Julia Butterfly Hill, “Fierce Light” is also a globe-trotting record of Ripper’s personal quest (following his previous film, “Scared Sacred”) to transcend specific religious faith and embrace an all- encompassing vision of unified humanity, with the civil-rights movement of the ’50s and ’60s as its solid foundation.
-Seattle Times
Certainly the best documentary I saw at the Waterfront Film Festival recently was a collection of inspiring stories that made up “A Fierce Light: When Spirit Meets Action.” Filmmaker Velcrow Ripper (”Scared Sacred”) globe trots around the world looking at a vast range of people protesting various social issues and examines the notion that social action is most effective when it is deeply rooted in some form of spirituality. The documentary has received awards at numerous film festivals and it is slowing rolling out into theaters this summer with a positive, grassroots buzz growing.
-Beliefnet
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Over 40 years ago, on October 9, 1967, Ernesto Che Guevara was executed by the Bolivian army, aided by the CIA. Guevara’s diary, a detailed, personal account of his futile 11-month attempt to foment revolution in Bolivia, is the basis of this moving portrait. Che’s relationship with the mysterious Tania, his betrayal by local peasants, his constant battle with asthma, and his distress at the death of his comrades is recounted. Interviews with Bolivians who met Che during these final days, coupled with narrations from Che’s actual diaries, testify to a man who embraced sacrifice for his ideals. This is an enlightening insight into the real history of a revolutionary icon.
“…moving…”
- The New York Times
“…a revealing glimpse into the revolutionary mindset.”
- Chicago Tribune
“…a compelling portrait.”
- Seattle Weekly
“An understated, stunningly effective portrait.”
- Chicago Tribune
Meditate and Destroy profiles the persona who quite possibly represents America’s most unexpected Buddhist: former punk rocker and juvenile delinquent Noah Levine, bestselling author of the book Dharma Punx. As a teenager, Levine was mired in an abyss of violence, drug and alcohol abuse – and criminal detention. When he hit bottom, attempting suicide in juvenile jail in the late 80’s, Levine received a phone call from his father who instructed him how to take baby steps toward initiating meditation practice. Knowing that he either need to die or to change, Levine tested meditation and felt a glimmer of freedom from his intense suffering. Today, Levine is a respected teacher and figure in what is perhaps the most unconventional Buddhist community in the country: the “Dpunx Nation.” Staking claim to his egalitarian urban vision, Levine states that “Buddhism is not just for hippies anymore” as he reaches out to a new generation of youths who are turning to meditation as they seek a departure from their lives of drugs, violence and crime. In major cities throughout America, these unlikely Buddhists find comfort – and affinity – in Levine’s approach. Today, New York, Hollywood, Philadelphia, Seattle, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Boulder and Portland all host regular Dharma Punx-inspired meditation groups that allow punks to develop their own awareness on a deep level while retaining their edge and individuality.
Meditate and Destroy is the definitive documentary film about the Dharma Punx nation, its roots and continued expansion in U.S. cities.
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If you don’t believe in God, but want to, where do you begin? Simon Cole sets out across America in search of a connection with God that has perplexed and eluded him throughout his life in the new documentary film So Help Me God.
In Religulous, Bill Maher embarked on a satirical quest to find God while mocking the beliefs of the religious. In So Help Me God, Simon Cole chronicles his odyssey across the nation asking Christians, Catholics, Baptists, Presbyterians, Muslims, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Amish, Jews, Sikhs, Mormons, Buddhists and fellow free thinkers quite simply, “Who is God?” Cole’s sincerity instantly puts his subjects at ease as they share cherished stories and beliefs from virtually every religious tradition in the country. A humble supplicant in search of God, or at least insights about Him, Cole visits communities from the Pentecostal deep south to the Hasidic enclaves of Brooklyn to the gay Catholic congregations of the West Coast. This powerful documentary is more than one man’s quest to connect with God, it is a collage of the contemporary American religious experience that concludes with a personal revelation.
“If you want something refreshing, something personal, and powerful - watch So Help Me God. As an atheist you will see religion from a different perspective and as a theist you will enjoy Simon’s search for God. It’s very healthy to search for the unknown as it takes courage, especially when the unknown defies the mainstream status quo. A personal master piece that will leave your mind in a deep thought contemplating about your own spiritual state of mind. You owe it to yourself to watch it.”
- Viktor Nagorny, Examiner.com
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Make Love a sacred art. Transform your love life, enjoy more passion and fun, experience more meaningful intimacy, strengthen your marriage, become a great lover by learning ancient and contemporary love arts with Karinna Kittles Karsten’s Sacred Love-Making DVD.
Sacred Love is the experience and expression of a meaningful, passionate, intimate relationship that includes a physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual connection between two people. Sacred Love helps both singles and couples create deeply loving and sexually satisfying relationships based on ancient and contemporary intimate wisdom from all over the world.
Learn ancient secrets and new techniques from Karinna, who guides two couples to new heights of sexual ecstacy and spiritual connection as they discover new levels of passion, connection, communication and pleasure.
You too can discover how to:
–strengthen a current relationship
–re ignite the sexual chemistry in your relationship
–become a better lover by exploring Timeless Love Play and Love-Making Techniques
–grow closer with your partner emotionally, physically and spiritually
In a wooded glade somewhere near San Francisco, The Workshop challenges the rules of modern society by pushing all boundaries of normal convention - especially the sexual ones! A group of people agree to take part in a 10-day ‘workshop’ led by spiritual leader Paul Lowe in their search for a higher personal truth. On day one they are told to introduce themselves and meet everyone else - completely naked!
Searing emotional honesty, full nudity, experiments and sexuality and the exorcising of inner demons are the hallmarks of this groundbreaking and provocative documentary. Enlightenment achieved?…maybe. But definitely the naked truth…
“One of the most talked about films at the [2007] Tribeca Film Festival
…an extraordinarily frank and thought-provoking sexual odyssey which,
with the right exposure and a healthy pinch of salt, could be a zeitgeist,
talking-point film along the lines of What the Bleep Do We Know or Shortbus.”
-Mike Goodridge, Screen International
“The breakdown of convention is a wild ride, as Morgan chronicles love
triangles, couples struggling with monogamy and a gay man having sex with
a woman for the first time-all on camera. Jealousy, both emotional and physical,
erupts within the flock. It’s an amusing and emotional adventure in sex, love,
betrayal, fear and joy until the workshop ends.”
- Aaron Krach, Tribeca Film
Justin Bond and Kenny Mellman are KIKI & HERB, worldwide smash punk rebel entertainers, cabaret outsiders, and subversive pop stars who rock stages all over the world. Join the Tony-nominated duo at the epicenter of their madness for their first-ever live DVD from the Knitting Factory in New York City. Featuring 15 numbers from their incendiary Year of Magical Drinking Tour including Rhythm Divine, Song Against Sex, I’m Ugly (and I Don’t Know Why), Moments of Pleasure, I was a Maoist Intellectual, and LilyBelle, KIKI & HERB Live at the Knitting Factory delivers the artistry that Ben Brantley of the NY Times hails as “mind-popping, transcendent, and wondrous, of devastating depth and substance.”
“Slashingly funny, psychically unsettling entertainment—
part cabaret, part rock and roll, part Victorian melodrama”
– The New Yorker
“A deliciously deranged, perfectly timed descent into theatrical madness,
all set to a deliriously inappropriate pop soundtrack…
horribly funny and unexpectedly moving.”
– TimeOut London
“Truly defiant, subversive, untamed and undiluted brand of entertainment”
- SF Bay Times
If you have any questions about your DVD or merchandise order, please submit your inquiry to our fulfillment house here. Your questions will be answered within the same or next business day.
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Forgiveness: Stories of Our Time focuses on four individuals who have lived through events so painful and horrific they are unimaginable to most of us.
Lesley Parrott’s young daughter was stalked, raped and strangled. Anne Marie Hagan’s father was murdered by their next-door neighbor. Alan McBride’s wife and eight others were killed in an IRA bombing in Belfast. Reverend Julie Nicholson’s daughter was killed on the London underground in an al Qaeda bombing in 2004. Through heartfelt interviews and archival footage, these are the stories of men and women as they absorb, cope with and attempt to move beyond brutal events in their lives.
In a world wracked by increasing violence and horror, Forgiveness: Stories of Our Time brings hope that there are other possibilities beyond blind revenge – and that in forgiving others we can set ourselves free.
“Deeply moving.”
- The Globe and Mail
“…a groundbreaking documentary.”
- Hollywood Reporter
“This is a powerful film and although it’s heart wrenching and difficult to watch in some points,
it delivers by doing what good documentaries ought to do; it makes the viewer think.”
- Vitality Magazine
“The stories presented to the viewer are real in every sense of the word,
and this film is worth a look.”
- Anglican Journal
“This powerful film…takes us on a journey where hope triumphs
despite the suffering associated with such unimaginable loss.”
- Juicy Stuff
The American Ruling Class is a morality tale set to music about two Yale students who seek their opportunities after graduation. Lewis Lapham, the renowned essayist, author and longtime Harper’s Magazine editor, conducts them through the corridors of power – Pentagon press briefings, the World Economic Forum, philanthropic foundations, Washington law firms, banks, the Council on Foreign Relations and New York society dinners. As they make their way, the real-life luminaries they meet become characters in a dramatic story about power, its responsibilities and abuses. The subject is our country’s most taboo topic: class, power and privilege in our nominally democratic republic.
Part Monty Python, part Michael Moore, The American Ruling Class is an entertaining clarion call for all citizens to consider who has power, how they acquired it, and most importantly, how they keep it.
“A guided safari through the tribal haunts of the power elite.” -Vanity Fair
“The American Ruling Class k.o.’d me..a remarkable and revelatory documentary
…an astonishing program”
-Studs Terkel
Introduced and Hosted by
Lewis Lapham
Featuring interviews with
Robert Altman
James A. Baker
Bill Bradley
Harold Brown
Hodding Carter III
William T. Coleman, Jr.
Walter Cronkite
Barbara Ehrenreich
Vartan Gregorian
Mike Medavoy
Joseph S. Nye, Jr.
Samuel Peabody
Pete Seeger
Lawrence H. Summers
Arthur O. Sulzberger, Jr.
William Howard Taft IV
Kurt Vonnegut
Howard Zinn
PLEASE NOTE: FOR HOME USE ONLY. This film is not available from Alive Mind for educational institutions, public libraries and the non-theatrical market. Please contact BULLFROG FILMS.
Last year nearly 400,000 women in the United States got breast implants. At a time when more women than ever are making this choice, fewer voices than ever seem to be asking “Why?” And fewer still are asking “Are they safe?” Absolutely Safe takes an open-minded, personal approach to the controversy over breast implant safety. Ultimately, Absolutely Safe is the story of everyday women who find themselves and their breasts in the tangled and confusing intersection of health, money, science, and beauty.
At its heart, Absolutely Safe is driven by the experience of the filmmaker’s own mother. Diagnosed in 1974 with breast tumors, Audrey Ciancutti underwent a double mastectomy with silicone-implant reconstruction surgery. A year later, her implants ruptured, and soon after, her health steadily declined. Like thousands of other women, Audrey believes her debilitating illnesses—joint pain, chronic fatigue, scleroderma– are linked to her breast implants; however, most doctors and researchers deny this link. Among the debate by plastic surgeons, toxicologists, attorneys, implant manufacturers, whistle blowers, government officials and activists, Absolutely Safe introduces more everyday women like Audrey who make choices about their breasts in our appearance driven culture.
Even though the FDA recently lifted its restrictions on silicone implants and approved them for wide-scale use, many serious questions remain regarding breast implant safety. However, Absolutely Safe reveals that the conversation on implant safety is far more complex than simple pros and cons. Rather, the real conversation, the most important conversation—with the most difficult and challenging questions—rests with viewers themselves, as all individuals in our culture ultimately face this confusing intersection of choice, risk, money, beauty, and health.
Absolutely Safe sparks this long overdue cultural conversation.
“It is the perfect antidote to ads and TV shows that now routinely mislead women into thinking that these devices have been proven to be safe.”
–Judy Norsigian, co-author and Executive Director, Our Bodies Ourselves
Please click here to find out how your purchase of Absolutely Safe can benefit Our Bodies Ourselves,
a landmark organization for women’s health.
Justin Bond and Kenny Mellman are KIKI & HERB, worldwide smash punk rebel entertainers, cabaret outsiders, and subversive pop stars who rock stages all over the world. Join the Tony-nominated duo at the epicenter of their madness for their first-ever live DVD from the Knitting Factory in New York City. Featuring 15 numbers from their incendiary Year of Magical Drinking Tour including Rhythm Divine, Song Against Sex, I’m Ugly (and I Don’t Know Why), Moments of Pleasure, I was a Maoist Intellectual, and LilyBelle, KIKI & HERB Live at the Knitting Factory delivers the artistry that Ben Brantley of the NY Times hails as “mind-popping, transcendent, and wondrous, of devastating depth and substance.”
Forgiveness: Stories of Our Time focuses on four individuals who have lived through events so painful and horrific they are unimaginable to most of us.
