Death - The Ultimate Journey
DAILY FRI 9 – THURS 15 JULY
| Empty-handed I entered the world. Barefoot I leave it. My coming, my going — Two simple happenings That got entangled. — Kozan Ichikyo | ||
Cost: R30 per ticket with usual Labia discounts DAILY FRI 9 – THURS 15 JULY 12.15pm Facing Death: the Life of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross 2.15pm Tuesdays with Morrie 4.15 pm Infinity: The Ultimate Trip 6.15 pm Facing Death: the Life of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross 8.15pm Departures | ||
| By popular demand, this focus has been extended by a third week to Thursday 22 July Daily screenings as above | ||
| ‘When we have passed the tests we were sent to Earth to learn, we are allowed to graduate. We shed our body, which imprisons our soul the way a cocoon encloses the future butterfly.’ - Elisabeth Kübler-Ross | ||
| LIST OF FILMS | ||
| Facing Death: the Life of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (98 minutes; 2007) | ||
This intimate film was made when Kübler-Ross awaited her own death - on the verge of the transition she researched so passionately. Conversations with Elisabeth in Arizona form the core of the film. She looks back on her life, describes her childhood and her work, and explains how she herself faces aging and impending death. Interviews with her sisters, friends, and colleagues, as well as extensive archival material provide a comprehensive look into the life and work of this extraordinary woman. Her story is a remarkable one. Born in Zurich in 1926 as a 2-pound triplet, she studied medicine in defiance of her parents' wishes and struggled for recognition as a psychiatrist in the United States. In 1969 she achieved international fame through her work with terminally ill patients in Chicago and her book 'On Death and Dying'. This initial success was followed by countless workshops and lecture tours around the world and the establishment of a healing center in Virginia, which was destroyed by arsonists in 1994. Since that time, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross suffered a series of strokes and lived secluded in the desert outside Phoenix, Arizona. | ||
| Infinity: The Ultimate Trip (90 minutes; 2009) | ||
| Featuring Gregg Braden, Dannion Brinkley, Renate Dollinger, Stanislav Grof, Dzogchen Ponlop, Robert Thurman, Alberto Villoldo, Neale Donald Walsch . What happens after we pass from this world? Is there a life after this one? Or do we just disappear forever? These are the questions asked in this powerful and poignant documentary. Many may be surprised by the answers. The film brings a message of hope and optimism concerning the most mysterious act in a human life: the end of this life and journey to the beyond. Using vital and beautiful imagery, along with personal accounts of near-death experiences, reincarnation and more, Infinity brings forth the story of our own infinite nature, what to expect after death and the magic and beauty that awaits us on the other side. Here we learn of the energetic landscape of the world that we enter after we die, the angels, or beings of light, who assist us in the passing and the promise of a new life. Infinity is an honest and hopeful assessment of the greatest journey that any of us will ever take. It helps change our view from that of dread and pessimism to one of hope, joy and light. | ||
| ‘How we define death largely determines how we will experience our own.’ – Dzogchen Ponlop | ||
| Departures (130 minutes; 2008; Japanese with subtitles) | ||
| Academy Award best foreign language film 2009 Daigo (Masahiro Motoki), a devoted cellist, applies for a job at ‘Departures’ thinking it is a travel agency. He discovers that the job is actually for a ‘nokanshi’ or ‘encoffineer’, a funeral professional who prepares deceased bodies for burial and entry into the next life. While his wife and others despise the job, Daigo begins to perfect the art of nokanshi, acting as a gentle gatekeeper between life and death, between the departed and the family of the departed. The film follows his profound and sometimes comical journey with death as he uncovers the wonder, joy and meaning of life and living. | ||
| Tuesdays with Morrie (89 minutes; 2003) | ||
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