City Park is as magical and unique as the city of New Orleans. The 1,300-acre outdoor oasis has enchanted New Orleanians since 1850, making it one of the nation's oldest urban parks. Quietly compelling, Zen for Nothing is filled with moments of pristine beauty and meditative calm, as well as humor and humanity. We follow the experience of a Swiss novice, Sabine, as she arrives at the Antaiji Zen monastery, hidden in the lushly wooded mountains on the west coast of Japan.
A masterly immersion into life at a Japanese Zen monastery over three seasons. Swiss novice Sabine arrives at Antaiji and, after a brief welcome, she begins to learn the monastery rules: how to bow, sit in the meditation hall, carry out movements with chopsticks, etc. There’s more to life there than meditation, farming, and maintenance, however—there are picnics, music, and Wi-Fi. And after the last snow has melted away, the nuns and monks travel to Osaka, where they recite sutras in front of subway entrances as they solicit offerings in their traditional monk’s robes. Quotes from renowned abbot Kodo Sawaki are interjected throughout. Simple and beautifully filmed, this is Into Great Silence meets Enlightenment Guaranteed, with composer Fred Frith performing the eclectic, elegant score. –Freer Gallery of Art
Sabine TimoteoMuho Nölke
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Directed by Werner Penzel
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