[Buddha-l] Two films of interest

[jkirk]

Has anyone seen one or both of these two films?  Comment?
Joanna
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Amongst White Clouds. The world premiere was co-presented in 2005 by the 
International Buddhist Film Festival at the 28th Mill Valley Film Festival.

Inspired in part by the noted book by Bill Porter (Red Pine), Road To 
Heaven: Encounters With Chinese Hermits, and filmed on location in China by 
American Director Edward A. Burger, the film takes an unforgettable journey 
into the hidden tradition of China's Buddhist hermit monks. Amongst White 
Clouds is an intimate insider's look at students and masters living in 
scattered retreats dotting China's Zhongnan Mountain range. These peaks have 
reputedly been home to recluses since the time of the Yellow Emperor, some 
five thousand years ago. It was widely thought that the tradition was all 
but wiped out, but the film emphatically and beautifully shows us otherwise.
One of only a few foreigners to have lived and studied with these elusive 
practitioners, Burger is able, with humor and compassion, to present their 
tradition, their wisdom, and the hardship and joy of their everyday lives 
among the clouds.
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Un Buda (A Buddha)
Diego Rafecas, Director
Argentina, 2005, 110 minutes
(Spanish, with English subtitles)
Rafecas is a Zen teacher in Argentina; Un Buda is his first feature. With a 
backdrop of the government abuses in Argentina during its "Dirty War" of the 
late 70s and early 80s, the film follows two brothers orphaned as children 
when their parents were taken by the military. Tomas is now a drifting and 
withdrawn young man who experiments with ascetic practices and has 
compassion for others. His older brother Rafael, played by Rafecas, is a 
university philosophy professor, detached and alone. Their struggles with 
each other and the world around them in Buenos Aires take a turn when they 
find themselves at a Zen retreat center in rural Argentina.