You are here: Home / Archives for life

Life, Above All: AIDS crisis in South Africa challenges Chanda

November 4, 2012 By

Life, Above All reveals the AIDS crisis in South Africa through the eyes of a little girl. Khomotso Manyaka stars as Chanda in this moving, redemptive drama. Oliver Schmitz, a white native of South Africa, directs.

Chanda takes responsibility when her baby sister dies and her mother falls ill. Life, Above All is now streaming at Amazon and available at Netflix. Dennis Foon and director Schmitz wrote the screenplay adapted from the young adult novel Chanda’s Secrets.

Journey to reclaim a mother

The film opens as Chanda chooses a coffin for baby Sara. The 12-year-old drops out of school to care for young siblings as her mom Lillian (Lerato Mvelase) grows weaker. A drunken stepfather Jonah (Aubrey Poolo) shows up erratically to steal from his wife and blame her for his fate.

Chanda remains dignified and determined. “You amaze me,” Lillian tells her daughter. After a witch doctor’s visit, Lillian exiles herself from the community. Chanda begins a heroic journey to find and reclaim her.

Manyaka’s acting debut is powerful. Stoic but holding onto compassion, she reminds me Jennifer Lawrence in Winter’s Bone.

Casting succeeds

Every performance feels true and pure. Harriet Manamela plays Mrs. Tafa, the lively gossip who takes a stand when an angry crowd surrounds her neighbor’s home. First she must face her own shame and denial. The matriarch’s change of heart might even transform a few townspeople.

Chanda stands by her best friend Esther (Keaobaka Makanyane), an AIDS orphan shunned by the village. Makanyane superbly conveys a little girl forced into adulthood. Desperate Esther experiments with prostitution. Staying behind, she makes Chanda’s journey possible.

Manyaka, Makanyane and many in the cast are non-actors.

Dying for healthcare

South Africa has one of the highest HIV-AIDS infection rates in the world. According to a 2010 UNICEF report, nearly half of South Africa’s three million orphans lost their parents to HIV-AIDS related disease. It is the country’s leading cause of death in children and women.

Schmitz does not delve into politics. His keen focus on personal heroism and resilience engages viewers to take action.

International acclaim for Life, Above All

Shot outside Johannesburg, Life, Above All was shortlisted for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars. It was featured at the following festivals: Cannes’ Un Certain Regard, Ebertfest and Human Rights Watch.

Cinematographer Bernhard Jasper films in HD to portray life and death. He uses golden light to illumine these moments objectively. African choral singing, with music by Ali N. Askin and Ian Osrin, adds depth and beauty.

This film achieves a powerful moment of personal and social transformation. As Chanda looks on, fear turns into love.

If you like Life, Above All, you might enjoy:  Beasts of the Southern Wild; Winter’s Bone.

 

Life, Above All  /   2010  /  PG-13  /  1 hour, 40 min

Cast Overview:  Khomotso Manyaka, Keaobaka Makanyane, Harriet Manamela, Lerato Mvelase, Aubrey Poolo, Mandla Ernest Mokoena

Director: Oliver Schmitz

Language:  Pedi with English subtitles

Genres:  Drama

 

Filed Under: Awaken, Current Affairs, Heal, Learn & Grow, Spirituality, Transformation Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

The Intouchables: Omar Sy, Francois Cluzet reclaim lives as two friends

August 8, 2012 By

Omar Sy and Francois Cluzet star in The Intouchables. Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano direct this true life dramedy where friendship rekindles the lives of a wealthy paraplegic and an urban survivor.

Now playing in North American theaters, The Intouchables is based on the book You Changed My Life, Abdel Sellou’s memoir about his relationship with the disabled aristocrat Philippe Pozzo di Borgo.

Odd couple finds adventure

Driss (Sy) is hired to assist Philippe (Cluzet) who was paralyzed after a para-glider accident. Sy is funny and vivacious as a con man who loves life despite years of poverty and struggle.

Cluzet is marvelously understated as a wounded adventurer filled with romantic longing. Philippe wants to savor life and abhors pretense. This prompts him to hire the unlikely assistant.

Driss’ bold antics and in-your-face honesty open hearts as he stirs up the proper household. This role won Sy Best Actor at the Cesar Awards.

Daring to live again

Driss treats Philippe to a high-speed Maserati trip through Paris. When police stop them, he feigns outrage as his boss fakes a seizure.

Embracing his own wildness, Driss inspires Philippe. The film is fascinating and never becomes trite or sentimental.

Several turning points mark the characters’ growth. Philippe corresponds passionately with a woman he has never met. Driss insists that the two get together. Later, Philippe introduces Driss to para-gliding.

The men transcend class as they find common ground.

Creating remarkable moments

In a remarkable moment, Philippe allows Driss to leave his position so he can supervise a wayward young cousin. Philippe begins to languish. No one can replace Driss.

The real-life characters appear in the end titles. Algerian immigrant Sellou and French aristocrat Pozzo di Borgo remain longtime friends.

If you like The Intouchables, you might enjoy:  Goodbye Solo; The Soloist.

 

The Intouchables  /   2011  /  R  /  1 hour, 42 min

Cast Overview:  Francois Cluzet, Omar Sy, Anne Le Ny, Audrey Fleurot, Clotilde Mollet, Alba Gaia Bellugi, Cyril Mendi, Cyril Mendi, Christian Ameri

Directors: Olivier Nakache, Eric Toledano

Studio:  The Weinstein Company

Languages: French with English subtitles

Genres:  Drama, Comedy

Filed Under: Awaken, Change of heart, Character, Community, Compassion, Healing - Traditional, Learn & Grow, True Stories Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

May I Be Frank: Frank Ferrante goes vegan to save his life

March 13, 2012 By

 

Frank Ferrante wants to fall in love one more time. First, he must begin again. In May I Be Frank, the struggling hero lives a vegan lifestyle for 42 days.

Coached by friends from San Francisco’s organic, vegan Café Gratitude, Frank’s story becomes a funny, deeply moving documentary. The DVD is now available at the film’s website.

Hero’s journey

Frank laughs through his tears. Drugs and booze have taken a toll. He’s divorced, depressed, and estranged from his daughter Lisa. He was “unreliable and emotionally unavailable” for years. The Brooklyn-born Sicilian’s one-liners are direct and honest.

Weighing 287 pounds, Frank has Hepatitis C, constant fatigue, aches and pains, and no sex drive. He takes a “fistful of pills” and drinks espresso all day. Clean and sober, he still needs help.

Café Gratitude to the rescue

Hearing Frank’s story, Ryland Engelhart, a server at Café Gratitude, asks, “What if you allow us to be your transformative cheerleaders?” Ryland, Conor Gaffney and Cary Mosier agree to guide Frank through a program of vegan meals, affirmations, coaching, exercise, checkups and body therapies.

Each day begins with wheatgrass juice, followed by a nutritional smoothie of coconut milk, green superfood, cacao powder, figs and dates. To support his emotional growth and spirit, Frank promises to journal daily in the Abounding River Personal Logbook.

Affirming change in the mirror

“I, Frank, do love me,” he begins. “I am a perfect human being, radiant beauty and divine energy. I am Divine. I now hold in my mind this new image of myself as a thriving, flourishing, gloriously beautiful human being.”

“Love like you’ve never been hurt,” someone tells him.

Eating raw foods

After the first glass of wheatgrass juice, “even motor oil would taste good,” he gasps. Matthew Engelhart, owner of the café, meets with Frank. “Practice being fulfilled now,” Matthew advises. “You create being fulfilled or not. It’s a moment-to-moment choice.”

Raw food is living food – vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds not heated above certain temperatures. This preserves enzymes and nutritional value. Frank begins to enjoy vegan enchiladas and salads.

The hero crashes. There are days when he can’t get out of bed. The coaches make house calls. “Resistance causes pain and lethargy,” he’s told. Regrets begin to surface. “I’m sorry I hurt so many people,” he cries.

Practicing generosity and gratitude

With joy, Frank gives his brother Izzy a motorcycle and riding jacket. He gives away clothes to the needy. “Love your life just the way it is right now,” the workbook tells him. “Accept the world and other people as they are.”

The camera follows Frank to colonic sessions, where he releases “an avalanche” of old, stuck toxins. “I feel thinner!” he exclaims. He drinks a gallon of water each day.

Frank stumbles and falls. He reunites with his daughter. He begins graduate studies in the Humanities. “The person I needed to fall in love with was me,” he realizes. (5 out of 5 stars)

If you like May I Be Frank, you might enjoy:  Food Matters; Forks Over Knives.

 

May I Be Frank /   2010  /  NR  /  1 hour, 30 min

Cast Overview:  Frank Ferrante, Matthew Engelhart, Ryland Engelhart, Cary Mosier, Conor Gaffney, ‘Izzy’ Angelo Ferrante, Dr. Joel Lopez, Anusha Amen-Ra

Director: Gregg Marks   Co-Directors: Cary Mosier, Ryland Engelhart, Conor Gaffney

Genres:  Documentary, Comedy

Filed Under: Awaken, Character, Documentary, Heal, Healing - Traditional, Learn & Grow, Spirituality, Transformation, True Stories Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Enlightenment lives in Collective Evolution II: The Human Experience

February 13, 2012 By

True peace in a world without limits is unfolding, says The Collective Evolution II: The Human Experience. This documentary about our evolution into enlightenment is filled with narration, interviews and beautiful visuals.

Who are we? Why are we here? Why are things the way they are? Get ready to look behind the curtain.

CE2 is now streaming on YouTube or you can purchase the DVD.

Life is no accident

In the beginning was Source, which burst into billions of tiny fragments. Each one of us is a fragment, says this film. The Collective Evolution Team directs, writes and edits. Helena Cortez narrates.

The purpose of our lives is “experiencing, learning and remembering who we truly are.” We are “all one in a unified field of consciousness.” In the dualistic world of good and bad, right and wrong, we have forgotten this.

We chose our life experiences before incarnating. All experiences, whether “good” or “bad,” are seen as neutral by our souls, which yearn to experience and learn.

For money’s sake

We use fuel oil despite alternatives “for the sake of the economy.” We wage wars “for the sake of the economy.” We indebt the poor and tout superficial values for money’s sake.

Daily life in an industrialist system is governed by education, career performance, debt management, and retirement. Ransacking our resources, which makes possible consumer-driven lifestyles, is not sustainable.

As many enter enlightenment, these old habits are already dissolving.

New values emerge

Values such as “a vibrant planet, respect for all life forms, healthy foods, peaceful ways and conscious actions” are often an afterthought.

We are moving into an economy of sharing rather than ownership, says Franco DeNicola, a member of the Collective Evolution Team.

Return from enlightenment

Franco says he is “a soul that came back” after a lifetime where he achieved enlightenment. He’s dedicated to helping humanity with the current evolutionary shift.

Awakening to our interconnectedness with each other, the Earth and all life forms is now needed.

Imagine someone carrying heavy luggage as he walks through rising water, says Franco. Eventually, we must choose: keep holding on and drown, or let go and begin to float.

Bodies on Earth

Our bodies are chosen by us, but we are not our bodies. Like an automobile, the human body is a vehicle that the soul travels in. Once we’re done with life, “we step out,” says Franco. “There is no tragedy. There is no death.” Consciousness continues, moving on to new experiences.

Earth reflects our consciousness. Everything is the stage, and will respond as we change our consciousness, according to the film.

Limitations like disease and aging are programmed beliefs which we can change, we are told. One way people shift is by sun-gazing.

Sun gazers thrive

Hira Ratan Manek (HRM) practices a form of yoga called sun-gazing to promote peace and good health. Since 1995, he reportedly has eaten no food, and drinks only boiled water.

Sun-gazing is practiced at sunrise and sunset to avoid UV rays. Starting with 10 seconds, and increasing that by 10 second increments each day up to 44 minutes, sun gazers take nourishment directly from the sun, according to Matthew Christodoulou, a co-director of the film.

Sun gazers find that they need to eat less, and their immune systems are boosted, he adds.

The Ego wages chaos

The ego is a software program implanted in our subconscious mind. Thoughts and stories collect and fill it over time.

“We are trapped, trapped in a multi-layered system of thoughts. We are in a prison we do not even realize exists, a prison so well designed that we have become the prison, and are willing to fight to protect it,” says the film.

The ego generates thoughts and belief systems based on anything we encounter throughout our lives. As souls, we agreed to use this program so we could forget who we truly are and fully engage in human experience.

The powerful few challenge us

A small group of souls wield power to disconnect our world from divinity even further. These individuals engineer systems to manipulate our thoughts and beliefs. Affected are the economy, our education system, religious institutions, food providers, the medical industry, and the ego itself.

These souls make our experience more challenging. We agreed to this before incarnating.

Movies and television often perpetuate ideas and stories to keep us believing in separation, strife and struggle. The fear of not having enough money is a common story.

You are not your thoughts

The only way out is to become aware of your true self, and to see the ego and all its madness for what it is: experience.

“We do have an awareness beyond our programming. We’re just unconscious of it. We’ve forgotten,” says Christodoulou.

“We’ve convinced ourselves that we are these programs, these auto-responsive emotions, and that we have no power over them,” Christodoulou adds. “And this is why we find ourselves constantly responding in the same manner over and over, repeating the same cycle. We are none of these thoughts.”

“True feeling is very, very peaceful, very clear inside, and it is our guiding system,” says Franco. It is tempting to identify with passing emotions such as happiness, sadness and anger.

Beginning to shift

“Freedom can only come by bypassing this program.” The key is to become aware of the ego, and know that you are the one observing it.

A shift is happening already in all the universe, says Franco. We experience and choose collectively, so that when one of us becomes more conscious, it affects the consciousness of all of us.

You can choose

“You now have a choice: do I go with the program and repeat the same cycle . . . or do I go with what I truly feel inside of me?” asks the film.

You can choose to be a true observer and creator, to go with what you truly feel. This means changing within, dissolving old habits of thought, and realigning with our Divine nature.

“We are pure potentiality,” says Franco. (5 out of 5 stars)

If you like The Collective Evolution II: The Human Experience, you might enjoy: The Collective Evolution; Thrive; 2012: Time for Change.

 

The Collective Evolution II: The Human Experience    2011  /  NR /  1 hour, 34 min

Cast Overview: Collective Evolution Team – Tara Carpino, Matthew Christodoulou, Franco DeNicola, Mark DeNicola, Alanna Ketler, Joe Martino, Elina St-Onge

Directors:  Matthew Christodoulou, Mark DeNicola, Joe Martino, Elina St-Onge

Genre:  Documentary, New Thought

Filed Under: Awaken, Community, Compassion, Documentary, Heal, Learn & Grow, Spirituality, Transformation Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,