Events at the 2010 Festival
White Tara, traditional brocade-mounted thangka, 30"x58", portrait orientation, 3lbs. 
Sun Valley Spiritual Film Festival
Youth Film Program
Where: Sun Valley Resort Boiler Room
When: Saturday, September 18th and Sunday, September 19th
Cost: Children free when accompanied by an adult pass holder.
Otherwise general admission $5 children, $8 adults
Saturday September 18th Program
10:00 Lost and Found, Miss Shade is Missing, and Smart Machine-50 min.
1:00 School Play-72 min.
3:00 The Secrets of Kells -75 min.
5:00 A Shine of Rainbows, Smart Machine-105 min.
Sunday September 19th Program
1:00 El Salon Mexico, Tibet is My Country -42 min.
3:00 Cultural Safari, Readings from the book The Royal Falcon by the author Jessi Kaur -70 min.
5:00 How I Taught My Grandmother to Read, Follow Me-45 min.
Film Descriptions
A Shine of Rainbows
Maire O'Donnell adopts a young orphan named Tomas and whisks him off to a new home on remote Corrie Island, off the coast of Ireland. Maire shares with Tomas the joys of her island home and introduces him to the whimsical local folklore, including the secret of the seals, and teaches him that everything you need is inside of you- if you really look. When tragedy strikes however, Tomas is faced with his greatest challenge yet. He'll lose everything unless he can find-and share-the unique gifts inside of him. Risking all, Tomas embarks on a perilous journey where he will need to call on his ability to see joy and color even when in the darkest place, in order to triumph and come home.
Cultural Safari
This fast-paced film is a creative, kid-friendly introduction to the origins, history, festivals and holidays of Sikh Americans, and also provides background on their beliefs, practices and cultural traditions. Viewers get to meet a Sikh family, learn traditional greetings, watch a turban being tied, and even witness a live Vaisakhi festival complete with bhangra dancing!
El Salon Mexico
A 13 year old artist teamed with a retired filmmaker to make this 12-minute masterpiece - a fully-animated, hand-drawn cartoon to the score of Aaron Copland's El Salon Mexico. The story begins with a young boy, Antonito, who sneaks away from home with his friends, the chicken and the donkey, to a fiesta.
Follow Me
A young girl learns an important message about caring.
How I Taught My Grandmother to Read
(Meri Pehli Chatra) Young Sudha and her grandmother are very close to each other. So much is the love between them that Sudha regularly reads to her illiterate grandmother. When Sudha goes out of town, her grandmother realizes that she can never know what is happening in the ongoing story until Sudha returns. Unable to bear the dependence, she coaxes her granddaughter to teach her to read and write. The film reveals the simplicity of Jain existence and principles, and their relevance to survival of humankind. Based on a book by the same name. In Hindi with English subtitles. Must be comfortable reading subtitles.
Miss Shade is Missing
Filmmaker Eddie Rosenstein films a 3rd grade class in Brooklyn recounting its worst day in school. It was surprisingly bad. And surprisingly funny.
Smart Machine
This animated short captures a little boy's unusual encounter with a vending machine during a family trip.
The Secrets of Kells
Magic, fantasy, and Celtic mythology come together in a sweeping animated story about the power of imagination and faith to carry humanity through dark times. Young Brendan lives in a remote medieval outpost under siege from barbarian raids, Brendan has to overcome his deepest fears and venture into the enchanted forest where mythical creatures hide to fulfill his dangerous quest.
Tibet is my Country
Songsten Gampo, the first Dharma King of Tibet, died in 698 A.D. In 2004, his only living descendant was coronated by His Holiness the Dalai Lama at the age of 12. Five years later, the teenaged Tibetan luminary sets out to tell his story and the story of a whole generation of young Tibetans struggling to retain their traditional culture in the face of persecution.
The Royal Falcon
The Royal Falcom book reading by the author Jessi Kaur. Eight-year-old Arjan suspects his class mate of stealing his special pencil. In a magical moment, Guru Gobind Singh ji's falcon comes alive to help him. Will Arjan get his pencil back? Why does the royal falcon take him back in time to 1705 to witness Guru ji's court in session? Join Arjan and Khushi, the falcon, in an exciting tale of adventure and friendship.
Festival Pass Holders and Invited Guests are invited to a Cocktail Party to kick off the 6th Sun Valley Spiritual Film Festival. South Terrace, Sun Valley Pavillion, 6:30-7:30 PM, prior to the Jayanthi Raman Dance Company performance of SHRISHTI - Creation: Temple dance ballet of India. Be the first to meet our special Film Festival guests amidst Indian hors d'oeuvres and libations. Buy your pass today and please join us!
Friday: 8:30-3:30
Stephen Jenkinson, Griefwalking: The Soul of the Well-Lived Life, Limelight Room
Canada’s leading palliative care educator and spiritual activist, and subject of the film Griefwalker, Stephen Jenkinson, will present Griefwalking: The Soul of the Well-Lived Life.
Members of the public, Health Care Providers, Social Workers, Counselors are invited to this day-long workshop to explore with Stephen how to make meaning of life and how to approach grief as a skill of life and not an enemy of life. “A culture addicted to security, comfort and ‘be all you want to be’ makes no time in its public or private life for sorrow or uncertainty or the end of things. To a culture like our own, grief is mostly medicated or resolved, and our hearts elbow our lives out of the way in their headlong search for safe landings and getting their needs met. Dying, when it is done well, is a village making thing. It is where we can learn our humanity, our capacity for love, endurance, grief, our skills of being needy and needed.”
The film Griefwalker, the National Film Board of Canada’s feature length documentary, is an extraordinary portrait of Jenkinson’s work with dying people and will be screened on Saturday, 7:30 PM, at the Opera House. Stephen will be speaking at the screening. About the film: Griefwalker is much more than a film about dying and death: it is a meditation on what it takes for us to fall in love with our lives. It's about the redemptive power of deep love for life when life glimpses its end. The film is generously sponsored by St. Luke's Wood River Foundation. The speaker is graciously sponsored by Board Member and festival advocate Dr. Scott McLean.
2010, USA, 94 minutesThis surprisingly open and revealing documentary follows two years in the private life of a minister. Marilyn Sewell is successful and beloved in the pulpit, but behind the scenes she is lonely and yearning for change. As she considers leaving the ministry, she realizes she will be leaving her only social network. Yet when she falls in love for the first time, she realizes she does not trust intimacy. A study in contrasts, Marilyn must rely on raw faith as she questions her future, her difficult past, her God, and most importantly... her ability to love. www.rawfaith.com. Speaking at the film screening, Filmmaker Peter Wiedensmith, with Reverend Dr. Marilyn Sewell, about whom the film is made. This film was graciously sponsored by Board Members Anita McCann and Mary Ann Chubb, thanks to their entrepreneurial bent (jewelry design and sales)!
Reverend Dr. Marilyn Sewell
The Reverend Dr. Marilyn Sewell recently retired from the First Unitarian Church of Portland, OR, where she served for 17 years as Senior Minister. She is a well-known religious leader, public speaker, teacher, and writer. Marilyn has become a noted figure in the Unitarian Universalist movement, sought out by the media for interviews on various spiritual and social issues; she has received numerous awards and honors. She currently serves on the Executive Committee of Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon. Marilyn is newly married and lives on the Willamette River in Portland with her husband, architect George Crandall. www.marilynsewell.com, www.rawfaith.com Reverend Dr. Marilyn Sewell will be speaking at the screening of the film in which she is featured, Raw Faith.