Look! Don’t hesitate - look!
Open your eyes.
Don’t blink, and look, look - look further.
-Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche
Our Project
The Fourth Moment is uniquely original and profoundly meaningful. A film like this has never been done in a serious and truth telling manner with such originality. I look forward to seeing it completed and in the theaters reaching a worldwide audience.
-Stanley Weiser, screenwriter (Wall Street, W, Project X, Freedom Song )
I think it is fascinating what you are doing with this film. Your project is about the path of the bodhisattva. It is an encounter with dying and death that leads one to liberation. I wish this film to be the embodiment of awakening others, so they may perceive the boundlessness of reality and embody the awakened way, which is unsurpassable. Just as the body dies we are unbinding to that moment of awakening. I wish that this film will awaken all who work on it and all those who will see it.
-Roshi Joan Halifax, Zen Buddhist Roshi, anthropologist, ecologist, hospice caregiver, and author (featured in our film)
THE FOURTH MOMENT will weave together fictional drama and documentary into a singular feature film experience. By doing so, we intend to convey new and unexpected insights into the cycle of dying and change and rebirth. Inspired by Buddhism and other wisdom teachings and specifically the Tibetan Book of the Dead this film addresses the wide spread renewal of public interest and involvement in both personal mortality and care for the dying. THE FOURTH MOMENT will tackle this emotionally charged subject with imagination, intensity, and the celebration of life.
We are living in tumultuous and fertile times. Many traditions speak of a profound millennium shift, a sea change, and a transition from an ending to a new beginning, from death to rebirth. Perhaps we are seeing the harbinger of a planetary spring. In any case clearly these are challenging times that call for a greater wakefulness, understanding, a willingness to accept change and most important the cultivation of kindness. The intention of producing THE FOURTH MOMENT, a journey from the known to unknown, is founded on this challenge.
Personally I have been both a filmmaker and social artist for most of my life. More deeply, I with Lin Dunbrack, my partner in this project, have spent much of our individual lives “on the voyage of the great enquiry” – What does it all mean? Making this film with the blessings and insights of many wisdom holders provides a window to this timeless journey.
The film is being produced in the spirit of “magical realism,” in that it weaves together realities and dreams into a tapestry that points beyond conventional experience. As of now we have filmed over 20 hours of interviews as well as some dramatic scenes. In particular we spent a week at Auschwitz-Birkenau filming at a Zen Peacemakers Retreat.
THE DRAMATIC NARRATIVE:
Janus Kairos, an award winning documentary filmmaker and war journalist gets word that Sasha, his daughter died in a mountain accident. He sets out to make a documentary on death and dying only to find out that he himself has a terminal disease and must confront his own death. He also is forced to confront secrets about his life that were hidden from him.
Through his encounters with remarkable men and women from diverse worlds including Buddhist teachers, rabbis, priests, shaman guides, caregivers, scientists, artists, doctors, hospice workers and a variety of holders of diverse wisdom traditions, Janus begins a visionary quest for liberation. By developing an acceptance of impermanence and change, by letting go, compassion and forgiveness dawn.
THE FOURTH MOMENT is a compelling odyssey that looks straight into the fear of death and reveals the human potential for spiritual awakening and transformation.
SOME OF THE LUMINARIES APPEARING IN THE FILM:
• Father Thomas Keating, Elder Trappist monk and priest, known as one of architects of the Centering Prayer.
• Rabbi Zalman Schachter, spiritual elder and founder of the Jewish Renewal movement
• Roshi Joan Halifax, Zen Buddhist Roshi, anthropologist, ecologist, hospice caregiver, and author
• Oliver Stone, filmmaker and Buddhist practitioner
• Howard Badhand, Lakota Sioux elder, shaman and authority on the Taoist I Ching
• Dr. Ira Byock, physician specializing in palliative care. the Director of Palliative Medicine at Dartmouth–Hitchcock Medical Center
• Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche teacher in the Bon Buddhist tradition of Tibet
• Eiiot Cowan, author of Plant Spirit Medicine, and a shaman in the Huichol tradition
• Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, a leading Buddhist teacher in North America and an advocate of American and Western Buddhism
• James George, senior Gurdjieffian teacher and retired Canadian diplomat
• Roshi Bernie Glassman, Zen Budddhst Roshi, world-renowned pioneer in the American Zen Movement
• Jean Houston, PhD, co-founder of Foundation for Mind Research, founder of the Mystery School
• Eddie Lenihan, Irish shanachie and a keeper of the Celtic tradition
• Martin Mosko, Zen abbot and Zen garden landscaper
• Frank Ostaseski, a founder of Zen Hospice Project, the first Buddhist hospice in America
• Lama Palden Drolma, one of the first western female lamas
• Reggie Ray, a leading Buddhist academic and vajrayana teacher in the lineage of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche
• Liz Southward, meditation practitioner battled a fatal form of cancer. (died December 2010)
• Moogy Sumner, Australian (Ngarrindjeri Elder) aboriginal dreamtime shaman
• Professor Robert Thurman, professor of Indo-Tibetan studies at Colombia University and President of Tibet House
• Katsura Kan, Butoh Master
• Beah Harber, CNM, Certified Nurse-Midwife
and more to be announced.
THE PLAN:
We have gathered together a talented group of cast and crew who are committed to the making of this important film. What we need is further funding in order to film the dramatic scenes. Our process has been non-linear and in the spirit of guerrilla filmmaking. Which is to say, the story keeps evolving and we shoot scenes as we have the money to do so. We are counting on your support. Please do what you can. And do check out the perks of gratitude we are offering.
Please note that all contributions are tax deductible. This campaign is sponsored by The Golden Sun Foundation for World Culture, a 501(c)3 not-for-profit charitable organization whose mission is to support art and culture.
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