A series of four full length films on the life of Urgyen Sangharakshita.

Great Ocean, Urgyen Sangharakshita and Friends, a biography is now complete with this 150-minute film (with a part break). 

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Watch Abiding Part One

Watch Abiding Part Two

Watch the full catalogue of films on Lights in the Sky



 

A good friend has just died. Death is in the air. Part Four of the Great Ocean series languishes on the bench. And so I gave myself up to play, in just a couple of hours I found the footage, laid in the music and found myself very moved. I might refine it at some point.  

Tribes and Individuals. Peter Woodcock, artist and writer, who has just died was good friends with many people in a number of different 'tribes’. This was the last question in an 80 min. interview we made with Peter in conjunction with some BBC colleagues gathering material about the criminal purges of homosexuals in the 50s and 60s. Peter became a Dharmamitra within the Bristol sangha.

I came across this piece as I was scanning through some footage I'd been asked (and paid) to film in 2016 for Thomas Kaiser from Norway who was interviewing a number of people at Adhisthana. Thomas has kindly given me permission to share this gem of exposition.

I am going to celebrate Bhante’s 97th birthday today by publicly launching Great Ocean 3- Alchemy following a large and appreciative audience at it’s screening last Saturday in Wymondham College.

This is the third of four films very loosely summed up by the title and subtitle Great Ocean: Sangharakshita and Friends. 

At some point I will write about the key stages of the project including meeting Sangharakshita to talk about it and the first two films, Memories of the Road and Opening Out arose from his suggestion to tell his story of his friendships with Buddharakshita and with Terry Delamare. One friendship facilitated a Buddhist life in India and the other a modern western life including the formation of a new FWBO/Triratna tradition.

The friendships in Great Ocean are not limited to personal ones and by Alchemy it's clear some key relationships are trans-personal. There is an ethical theme that begins to grow from 10 minutes into Memories of the Road that suggests creating a new Buddhist tradition is, on an unconscious level, vitiated by the odd makeup of the UK constitution. Deeper friendship, in or out of the Order, relies more heavily than we'd care to admit on freedom of speech. As Bhante thundered in 1988 - a decade after the catastrophic 'year of the blasphemy trial': 

We accept the need for more ethics in our social life but we reject the notion that those ethics have to be Christian ethics. I believe they can be Buddhist ethics. 

For two films I relied of several Sangharakshita memoirs. The new film has no single source but relies on many sources, written or spoken, marshalled into two modes: didactic and reflective.

The three films can be found at LightsintheSky.org. Please, please consider using the donation form that appears as that helps both the work of Sangharakshita.org and my own. Also, make use of them for group screenings when people can ask for clarifications - and you can ask for donations as well. 

Fond memories

I am very pleased to say that bookings for screenings of Memories of the Road and Opening Out are now taking place. Suryaprabha - surya4@me.com

For Bhante's funeral I was filming from very far back, almost in the weather, but I liked the compositions. 

‘Suryaprabha’s subtle visual means of conveying his message is an important contribution to the arts in [Triratna].’ 

Friendship is the lifeblood of our movement and Sangharakshita’s example is its source. But there is no real record of his friendships, and as time passes chances to create it diminish.  What is needed is a film about Bhante and friendship.

‘I am grateful for your very skilled, beautiful hard work. Yes, your videos are very important to me, to us all - important even in ways we cannot fathom.’ 

I am asking for funding, £4,500 to be exact, to make it happen. Can you help? £20 will cover a day in the studio. 100 days are needed. £50 covers filming an interview, 20 interviews are needed. £1,500 is the cost of a new work station.  I am working towards a Summer 2019 deadline for the first version.

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/great-friendship

Another Lights in the Sky film is in being made.

It is about Sangharakshita and friendship. There are two distinct elements: 50% his life as a series of friendship stories, the narratives are his own words, read offscreen by an actor*; 50% documentary interviews with people in different relationships to him. 

* Uniformity of delivery plus great audio quality is good for intelligibility, intimacy and empathy.

If you can please support the production by going to http://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/great-friendship

A great film begins when you leave the theatre

There are a lot of people appearing in this film. On the one hand, Sangharakshita describes teachers, artists, co-workers, carers, friends, relatives, intimate companions, students and strangers he’s known over nine decades. On the other, points of view and experiences from the same wide range of people interviewed for the film. As usual I aim to be entertaining as well as sticking to facts (but then I think visions and dreams can be facts). I am hoping for a mid 2019 release. Suryaprabha.

A Lights in the Sky film commissioned to celebrate 50 years since the founding of the Triratna Buddhist Order in London, 7 April 1968. It's a 45 minute compilation of the main themes of the four-part History of the FWBO series http://www.lightsinthesky.org/Lights_In_The_Sky_Films/triratna_history.html

My trip to Sri Lanka January 2017 was a chance for me to try shooting 4k with a Sony AX100 camera bought second hand just days before the flight from London. So an experiment. Edited, and even sound edited, on FCP X. Altogether a new and, um, interesting experience. More so than the holiday itself, perhaps, because I had noone to share the trip with, though I did enjoy a few days spent with Jinasena at his wonderful restaurant in the international traveller resort of Unawatuna.

The rock face Buddhas at Buduruvagala are unusual as they represent a mahayana perspective. Though there's no reference to it in the film the International Buddhist Museum in Kandy, a sort of nationalistic encyclopaedia, was quite interesting to wander around, but the temple of the tooth seemed best avoided by this traveller.

https://www.lightsinthesky.org/films/body-and-soul

http://lightsinthesky.org/Lights_In_The_Sky_Films/body_and_soul.html

http://tinyurl.com/zbjculu