New Realities Spiritual Film Festival Marks Its 3rd Incarnation

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Wednesday, 30 January 2013 03:52

Written by Laura Blum

Now in its third incarnation, the New Realities Spiritual Film Festival will manifest in Manhattan from January 31 to February 2, 2013. Aquarians born on January 31 are known to have eccentric perspectives. 

The spiritually-themed fest is curated by NewRealities internet radio talk show host Alan Steinfeld and Jodi Serota, owner of holistic personal growth forum META Center NY (214 W 29th St., 16th Floor).

The Festival aims to catalyze "the transformation of our local community and the collective awakening of the planet" using filmed "messages that affect the body, mind and soul." Spiritual biography is the guiding principal of this year's program.

The opening film is Emily Squires' The Art of Being Human: A Portrait of Frederick Franck. This documentary portrait of the painter, sculptor and author of The Zen of Seeing is part of an homage to Squires, the six-time Emmy Award-winning director of Sesame Street who died last November. Squires helmed -- and wrote for -- the celebrated children's series from 1982 to 2007. NRSFF pays tribute to her acclaimed filmed converstaion with the Dalai Lama, Visions of Perfect Worlds, with the closing night bookend The Road to Peace: Ancient Wisdom of the 14th Dalai Lama, by Leon Stuparich.

One of the Festival's highlights is the program surrounding the short documentary Finding Joe. Directed by Patrick Takaya Solomon, it probes the legacy of mythologist Joseph Campbell's famed “hero’s journey.” Following the screening, Phil Robinson and the Bliss Jockeys will perform music inspired by Campbell's work.

Other NRSFF titles include Kumaré (followed by Q&A with producer Bryan Camel) and Decoding Depak. The former exposes the New Age shenanigans of a self-proclaimed spiritual guru, and the latter offers a glimpse into the private persona of spiritual icon Deepak Chopra, by his son Gotham Chopra.

For a variation on the transcendence angle, there's Dear Governor Cuomo, from award-winning filmmaker Jon Bowermaster. Part concert film, part teach-in, it captures the musical happening that Bowermaster and his partner Natalie Merchant mounted in Albany to urge Governor Andrew Cuomo to maintain New York's moratorium on fracking. Celebrities Mark Ruffalo, Pete Seeger and Melissa Leo lend the protest documentary an effective blend of star power, hard facts and moving personal testimony.

One of the closing night films is The Overview Effect, about the transformation -- four decades later -- of the Apollo 17 astronauts who snapped the first photograph of the Earth from space. Director Guy Reid of Planetary Collective is the winner of the 2013 New Realities Meta Center NY Best New Conscious Filmmaker of the Year Award.

The full Festival lineup and tickets are available at 212 736 0999, Ext.1.

New Realities Spiritual Film Festival
January 31 - February 2, 2013
214 W 29th St., 16th Floor
New York, NY
http://NewRealities.com
http://www.MetaCenterNY.com

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