In Pursuit of the Siberian Shaman

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 12:44:00 GMT

In Pursuit of the Siberian Shaman
Buy Now: $320.00

Long suppressed by missionaries and then by Soviet anti-religious campaigns, Siberian shamanism has experienced an unprecedented revival following the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the number of shamans continues to rise. But who are these new shamans? Are they tricksters, magicians, businessmen, or cultural activists? This film takes a behind-the-scenes look at a Buryat shaman living on an island in the Lake Baikal as he moves between intimate shamanic rituals performed for local clientele and shows performed at various resorts for Western tourists in search of "primitive" cultures.

The film captures cross-cultural miscommunication as the shaman and tourists misunderstand one another, usually comically, sometimes disturbingly, made all the more poignant by the conflict between the dominant Russian Orthodox Church and the local shamanic tradition. Juxtaposing 1920s archival footage of a shamanic performance with its contemporary counterparts, the film grapples with the long-standing tension between the "indigenous" and the "cosmopolitan" in a rapidly transnational world.

“This is an excellent film for the classroom, appropriate to many different subjects, including anthropology, religion, Asian studies, globalization, tourism, and economic development. I fully intend to use it in my anthropology of religion class.”
—Patty A. Gray, Department of Anthropology, University of Alaska Fairbanks

“...In Pursuit of the Siberian Shaman is recommended for collections that concentrate in anthropology or in Asian, European and/or multicultural studies. ”
— Dan DiLandro, Educational Media Reviews Online (EMRO)

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Second Prize & Audience Award, Eyes & Lenses IV, Competition of Ethnographic & Anthropologic Films, Poland, 2007

16th World Congress of IUAES, Kunming, China, 2009

Delhi International Ethnographic Film Festival, India, 2008

Dialektus Film Festival, Budapest, Hungary, 2008

International Society for Shamanistic Research Conference, Budapest, Hungary, 2007

Globians Film Festival, Germany, 2007

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Join Me In Shambhala

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 11:12:00 GMT

Join Me In Shambhala
Buy Now: $295.00

Once brutally persecuted under the Soviet regime, Buddhism is back in Buryatia in Southern Siberia. But with a past where lamas were killed in prisons and temples burned to ashes, there are few masters left to pass on the tradition. Whether or not the faith survives depends on an incarnate Tibetan lama, scholar and meditational master who travels around remote villages to reawaken Buddhism. The film discovers an oasis of spiritual tolerance in a unique enclave of Siberia where East meets West and draws unexpected parallels between the two.

From the 13th to the 17th century, the mountainous area east of Lake Baikal in Siberia, now known as the Buryat Autonomous Republic, was part of the Mongolian empire. The Buryats were originally nomadic herders practicing shamanism until they were converted to Buddhism by Tibetan lamas in the 17th century. Buddhism remained intricately woven into the Buryat universe for a few centuries, until Stalin initiated his deadly campaign against religion.

A generation grew up and aged without knowing much of their spiritual heritage, when the breakup of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s suddenly spurred a tremendous Buddhist revival. Monasteries were being built from scratch, and people were coming in droves, craving to believe, craving to learn. But who will teach them, when the greatest lamas, philosophers and scholars died in the labor camps? The first young Buryats who were sponsored to study in India will return only in 14 years - the amount of time it takes to get a degree of geshe in the Tibetan Gelugpa tradition, which enables one to become a lama. The help once again came from Tibet. In 1993, Tibetans Yeshe Lodoi Rinpoche and his disciple Tenzin gave up their exile home in tropical India for the frozen steppes of Siberia to re-introduce the Buryats to their ancient beliefs.

From Ulan-Ude to the most remote villages of Buryatia, Anya Bernstein, an anthropologist and filmmaker, follows these two remarkable masters on their quest. Narrated by Rinpoche, this stylistically complex documentary is both a study of Buddhism in Buryatia (with its clearly shamanistic rituals) and a map of Buddhist cosmology, weaving together textures and rhythms of everyday life with mediations on emptiness and space.

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Prize for Outstanding Scientific Documentation, XVI Pärnu Int'l Doc & Anthropology Film Festival, Estonia, 2002

2nd Annual Buddhist Film Festival, Arlee, MT, 2007

Moma Film Foundation, Warsaw, Poland, 2006

Northeastern Anthropological Association Ethnographic Film & Video Festival, Lake Placid, NY, 2005

International Buddhist Film Festival, California, 2005

Asia Film Festival, Finland, 2004

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Documentary Educational Resources - Filmmaker / Bernstein, Anya / All Films

In Pursuit of the Siberian Shaman

Join Me In Shambhala