Dhamma Books

The Dhamma Brothers
[DHDVDTDB]

R295.00

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Directed by Jenny Phillips, Andrew Kukura and Anne Marie Stein This film is a breakthrough beyond anything we have yet seen about Vipassana in prisons:

The Dhamma Brothers goes deep. It allows the prisoners of Donaldson Correctional Facility near Birmingham, Alabama, to sculpt themselves in the round as human individuals, both photographically and in dialogue. The Dhamma Brothers delves deeply into the atmosphere and the enormous difficulties in the prison world.

Transcending the the darkness inside
The Dhamma Brothers takes the viewer transparently into what it means, for example, for a murderer (most of the guys speaking from this prison are homicides) to kill. To kill gruesomely.

And what it means to transcend killing. By going to the depths of one's own mind.

It reveals the deep mind-transformations a killer may achieve for himself. The ability to see things differently.

Fly on the ceiling
A solitary fly bothered this meditation room full of murderers. Bothered them a lot, until they saw the fly differently. Why was it hanging upside down on the ceiling, looking down at them looking up at it? A moment in which a roomful of killers understood why not to kill this fly.

Drama within reality
The story line of The Dhamma Brothers (if you can call it that, as it is not contrived, but a real account) has dramatic twists in it. This gives surprising outcomes which are all the more impressive, since they come straight out of reality, the real difficulties and oppositions that arose against Vipassana in Donaldson prison. What is striking is how the meditator prisoners handled the opposition and the heavy setbacks it involved.

Yes, the story has tensions in it which are the first real sight of them we have had in Vipassana film; tensions which generate an even stronger message about Dhamma, because they are nothing other than real situations.

Speaking to Africa
The mainly black population group, including prison staff, is a coincidence which makes this film much more at home in South Africa than its predecessors. And it contains a grass roots breed of eloquence that somehow makes it sit right here.

Direction
Finally the quality of direction and production is something we just haven’t experienced in Vipassana film until now; it is a very well sculpted piece of filming, without any sacrifice of verity.

Reviews and comments
“Intriguing — fierce irony and dark hope — powerful honesty and clarity.” – Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times

“Well, it is over. But the vibrations are still here. The memories of those last 10 days on the mat, the experiential wisdom which was gained, and all the prospects of peace which were found here, that is always going to linger.” – Benjamin “OB” Oryang, Dhamma Brother

This product was added to our catalog on Sunday 28 March, 2010.

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