Rita Semel: San Francisco Foundation Community Leadership Awards 2012

Rita Semel, interfaith pioneer and Jewish activist, is a recipient of the San Francisco Foundation Community Leadership Awards "for her life-long successes in creating healthy, just, and inclusive communities in the Bay Area and worldwide. She builds bridges of understanding between diverse religious and ethnic communities, and brings together the interfaith community to help alleviate poverty and end discrimination. Her catalytic leadership is felt far and wide, from the San Francisco Interfaith Council to the Global Council for the United Religions Initiative. Her legacy will be a more peaceful and compassionate world." - San Francisco Foundation

Fora da Caridade Não Há Salvação

Arreda Homem Que Chegou Mulher

Documentary about terreiro women in Fortaleza who occupy the highest positions in the hierarchy, subverting the patriarchal tradition of religious communities.

I Wish

Hong Kong started and flourished as a fishing port in the past, and its people have long been committed to worshipping ancient deities for their blessings. With over a hundred Tin Hau temples (Goddess of Sea) in Hong Kong, there are three on Lamma Island alone, located respectively in Sok Kwu Wan, Luk Chau and Yung Shue Wan. The film documents the states of Tin Hau temples on the island and beyond, as an attempt to contextualise the everyday practice of the fishing community, islanders and city dwellers visiting the temples.

Santeros

Tourisme religieux, un marché sacré

Exu - Além do Bem e do Mal

Encruzilhadas do Som

The documentary adresses the meaning of music and the musical diversity present in Umbanda (a Brazilian religion with afroindigenous roots). With interviews with four umbandistas from Fortaleza - Ceará, Crossroads of the Sound pays reverence to the enchanted dimension where the sounds cross each other to make the spirits dance.

New Heights Church: The Journey

Ten years after establishing New Heights, the pastors, their families, and other influential members of the church sit down for roundtable discussions to look back on the past decade and forward toward their future plans for the congregation.

New Ways

This film focuses on the basics of adapting to life in England.

Inside the Bruderhof

In one picturesque village in Sussex, life is very different. There’s no crime, debt or homelessness, everyone has a job but no-one earns a wage, and none of the children watch television, use social media, play video games or have a mobile phone.

Batchan

Teachings of an Issei. Advice, spirituality and challenges.

Encontro das Águas

This short film follows the journey of Rosane Pires and Iara Viana, during the preparations for their wedding, as well as the civil and religious ceremonies.

Circle

The chador brought to the tailor's shop will confront Arif with his own reality once more.

Words with Gods

The first of four installments in the groundbreaking Heartbeat of the World anthology film series. Comprised of several short films by some of the world's most exciting directors, Words with Gods follows the theme of religion - specifically as it relates to an individual's relationship with his/her god or gods...or the lack thereof. In Words with Gods, each director recounts a narrative centered around human fragility, as well as environmental and cultural crises involving specific religions with which each has a personal relationship; including early Aboriginal Spirituality, Umbanda, Buddhism, the Abrahamic faiths, Hinduism, and Atheism. An animated sequence by Mexican animator Maribel Martinez is woven through each of the film segments, with each segment narratively connected as a feature-length film.

Amish Grace

When a gunman killed five Amish children and injured five others in a Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania schoolhouse shooting in October of 2006, the world media attention rapidly turned from the tragic events to the extraordinary forgiveness demonstrated by the Amish community.