Living Yoga: The Life and Teachings of Swami Satchidananda

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Watch full film online here:

http://www.cultureunplugged.com/swf/embedplayer.swf

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Through the Eastern Gate

Anyone seen it?  Website with trailer

Chöd drum, Dehradun

WHAT moves young, educated people to give up their lives in material security for a spiritual quest that is characterized by uncertainty?
Through the Eastern Gate is a documentary film about the aspirations, practices and ways of life of three young Westerners who follow three different eastern spiritual traditions.

Hatha yoga, South India

In the idyllic rural setting of South India we get to know Ronela – a Finn who dedicated her life to traditional Tantric yoga. In Dehradun, in the North Indian foothills of the Himalayas, we meet Sister Yeshe – a young Australian nun who practices Tibetan Buddhism. And in Turkey we finally follow Aziz – a Californian Sufi dervish…

whirling Aziz, Istanbul

Documentary: Sex Trafficking in South India

Prostitutes of god

Journalist Sarah Harris has made a documentary about temple prostitutes in south India -Devadasi girls are dedicated to a Hindu deity and spend their lives selling sex.

Interview by Matilda Battersby
Monday, 20 September 2010

Former Independent journalist Sarah Harris has made a documentary about India’s temple prostitutes – Devadasi are young girls who are dedicated to a Hindu deity at a young age and support their families as sex workers.

The first instalment of the four-part exclusively online documentary ‘Prostitutes of God’ goes live today on VBS.tv.

I first went to India after I left The Independent three years ago. I wanted to run away and do something really different, so I went to volunteer with a charity in southern India which rescues victims of sex trafficking.

On my very first day there I stumbled into a meeting of Devadasi prostitutes. I was told that they were temple prostitutes, but didn’t have any understanding of what that meant.

I began to research it and in February 2008 was invited to northern Karnataka, which is the centre of the tradition in India. I interviewed a few of the women and wrote an article about it for Vice magazine. But visiting them stayed with me, and I wanted to find out more. continue reading full article at The Independent.

watch Prostitutes of God

Yoga, Inc. For Free (online)

via Yoga, Inc. – Watch the Documentary Film for Free – SnagFilms.

click to view

From the snagfilms website:

(2007) 58 min

The documentary that asks whether yoga can survive Big Business with its good karma intact

Yoga has transformed from an ancient spiritual practice into a competitive, commercialized, multi-million dollar industry. And for a practice rooted in renunciation, yoga sure is making some people very rich. Can yoga survive this war between the sacred and the profane with its good karma intact?

Esak Garcia is a star on the burgeoning competitive yoga circuit, racking up cash prizes and edging ever closer to snagging an endorsement deal. But Esak’s ultimate goal is the Olympics, a dream instilled in him by his guru, Bikram Choudhury. Bikram’s supporters applaud his crusade to have yoga recognized as an Olympic sport. His detractors are horrified. It’s typical of the controversies that surround the ‘Bad Boy of Yoga’. Bikram has also copyrighted his popular yoga style. Those who teach ‘Bikram yoga’ without playing by his rules are hit with crippling copyright infringement fees. So a group of yoga studio owners take Bikram to court to pose an important legal question; can anyone ‘own’ yoga?

In today’s yoga world only the marketplace has real meaning, where everything is up for grabs, from yoga shoes to chakra panties. The new mantras are Standardize and Supersize. In the race to cash in yoga chains (‘McYoga’?) are popping up everywhere, putting the smaller studios out of business. No wonder purists are scratching their heads. Is nothing sacred?

Greed, lust, ego and the search for enlightenment all come together in this original, irreverent portrait of spiritualism and capitalism colliding head on.

Watch: Home

documentary about our…home.

the usual.  we are all connected.  life is at once hideous and beautiful.  existence is a miracle so let’s take care of it.  etc.

watch full movie

 

Watch it: Human trafficking in SE Asia

View this movie at cultureunplugged.com

Sold: An MTV EXIT Special : Director: Charmaine Choo | Genre: Documentary | Produced In: 2007

Synopsis (from cultureunplugged.com): MTV EXIT present sold, a gripping documentary presented by Indian actress and UNFPA Ambassador, Lara Dutta. The Program introduces the tragedy of trafficking in South Asia where thousand of young girls and boys are sold into modern-day slavery. It features Pramila, an 18 year old girl who was trafficked from Nepal to a brothel in Pune ; Afsana, a 16 year old who was trafficked from her village in Bangladesh into forced domestic servitude in Kolkata; and Zakir who was just 11 when he was trafficked by his aunt into a zari factory. Their stories are told alongside those of other people from the trafficking chain including a middleman who preyed on young women in Mumbai before selling them brothels, a zari factory owner who has witnessed trafficking and exploitation and an inspirational trafficking survivors, Sarita who works as a border guard looking out for potential victims and traffickers. Sold provides a compelling look into this dark, inhuman, and exploitative world and shows how each one of us can help to prevent modern-day slavery.

take action:  Odanadi Seva Trust

Watch it: Mysore Style Painting

“When you concentrate, your eyes come in both at same places so that means he is concentrating on us…so he grants all of our wishes.”

View this movie at cultureunplugged.com

Neela : Colors of Tradition : Director: SPARROW | Genre: Documentary | Produced In: 2006

Synopsis (from cultureunplugged.com): Neela Panch is a painter who paints in the traditional Mysore style of painting. She participated in the sixth visual history workshop of SPARROW which students and teachers and art enthusiasts attended. In the video notes made on this occasion, Neela Panch speaks about why she chose the traditional style of painting, how gods and goddesses and images from mythology form her subject, what challenges it holds for her and how much spiritual satisfaction it gives her. She also demonstrates the painting of a traditional image choosing a non-mythological image in traditional vibrant colors.