The Dhamma Brothers Project with Filmmaker Jenny Phillips
This week on "Saturday Mornings with Joy Keys"-podcast chat with Filmmaker Jenny Phillips about her journey bringing meditation into an Alabama prison.
PHILADELPHIA, PA, September 28, 2010
The Dhamma Brothers Project---------------------------------------------------------
DATE: Saturday October 2, 2010
TIME: 11:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. ET
GO TO: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/joykeys and listen to the show from your computer.
CALL: 646-929-0368 to listen and ask questions from your phone.
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An overcrowded, violent maximum-security prison, the end of the line in Alabama's prison system, is dramatically changed by the influence of an ancient meditation program. Behind high security towers and a double row of barbed wire and electrical fence live over 1,500 prisoners, many of whom will never again know life in the outside world. But for some of these men, a spark is ignited when it becomes the first maximum-security prison in North America to hold an extended Vipassana retreat, an emotionally and physically demanding program of silent meditation lasting ten days and requiring 100 hours of meditation.
The Dhamma Brothers tells a dramatic tale of human potential and transformation as it closely follows and documents the stories of the prison inmates at Donaldson Correctional Facility as they enter into this arduous and intensive program. This film has the power to dismantle stereotypes about men behind prison bars.
SPECIAL GUEST: Jenny Phillips holds a doctorate in cultural anthropology, and is a filmmaker, writer, and psychotherapist. Over the past ten years, she has worked with prisoners in state and county prisons teaching courses on emotional literacy skills and meditation. In 1999, she first visited Donaldson Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison in Alabama. Through her initiative, a Vipassana meditation program was established there in 2002.
In 2008, Phillips released the award winning documentary film, The Dhamma Brothers. Produced and directed by Phillips, the film closely documents the stories of a group of prisoners at Donaldson, and follows them on their journey inside in search of peace and redemption. Phillips also collected over 200 letters from the prisoners. These letters and the prisoners' individual stories were published in 2008 by Pariyatti Press as Letters From the Dhamma Brothers.
Phillips manages a foundation, The Finca Vigia Foundation, dedicated to working collaboratively with the Cuban government to restore Ernest Hemingway's home and papers outside of Havana, Cuba.
Website:http://www.dhammabrothers.com/
Movie Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA8XFEyeMi8
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