In his lifetime, Thomas Merton was hailed as a prophet and censured for his outspoken social criticism. For nearly 27 years he was a monk of the austere Trappist order, where he became an eloquent spiritual writer and mystic as well as an anti-war advocate and witness to peace. Merton: A Film Biography provides the first comprehensive look at this remarkable 20th century religious philosopher who wrote, in addition to his immensely popular autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain, over 60 books on some of the most pressing social issues of our time, some of which are excerpted here. Merton offers an engaging profile of a man whose presence in the world touched millions of people and whose words and thoughts continue to have a profound impact and relevance today.
Filmmaker Rodney Evans embarks on a scientific and artistic journey, questioning how his loss of vis...
Narrated by Linda Hunt, this documentary examines the life of the late author and gay rights activis...
On Valentine's Day, 1993, Caveh Zahedi decided to ingest 5 grams (a very large dose) of hallucinogen...
The main characters of the film are two small boys who share the throne of Karmapa, the highest offi...
This short film profiles the benevolent Mike Sullivan, who has been in the process of shooting a sto...
An attempt to create a bridge between the different political positions that coexist, sometimes viol...
Drawing on a wealth of unseen archival material and unpublished notebooks, the film weaves a complex...
In an industry that is becoming increasingly competitive, what drives indie filmmakers to keep creat...
Story of the merits of the revered abbot Luang Pho Khoon.
It is difficult to characterize Slobodan Tišma. He is unique and versatile. He wanders with joy thro...
The life and works of Ecuadorian writer Marcelo Chiriboga, a key figure of the Latin American litera...
Two documentary filmmakers become the plaything of writer Peter Stamm and subject of the novel whose...
A figure skater seeks wisdom from a local sage to cure her diabetes.
This documentary focuses on the journey of Merton, a bohemian who went from communism to Catholicism...
An intimate portrayal of the everyday lives of Carthusian monks of the Grande Chartreuse, high in th...
The Cistercian monks of Austria are holy men who rise at 4:30 a.m., pray for more than four hours a ...
Fighter pilot, inventor, spy - the life of Roald Dahl is often stranger than fiction. Through a vast...