Soulful Cinema
I came across a news article today in the morning which talked about Reliance launching 20 new TV channels later this year. Of these, 5 are supposed to be movie channels. With Firangi (non-Hollywood movies), World Movies (again non-Hollywood movies), NDTV Lumiere (awarded and critically acclaimed movies) being on the air already or about-to-be-soon (suggesting an attempt to experiment with undefined film genres in order to provide for audience which is frustrated with re-runs of Hollywood and Bollywood biggies) and with perhaps a dozen or more movie channels already doing rounds, I was wondering whether this is not just the right time to launch a Soulful Cinema (Spiritual Entertainment) on at least one of these channels where they can air some existing movies which fall into the category of Spiritual Entertainment for a niche audience. With 400+ channels expected to be on air by 2009, super-micro-niches is something broadcasters CAN and HAVE to look into in order to survive.
With this thought in mind, I decided to start compiling a list of existing such movies, and making it long enough to make business sense. For now, am starting with a list of movies at the top of mind, the details of what will qualify for Soulful Cinema can perhaps form a topic for a thesis, but to sum it up in short, it should be soothing, intriguing cinema which talks about living life fully and tries to wonder about where we come from, where to we go and why we are here. I know the same can be defined in many more ways, and feel free to give your feedback, but in any case, it has to talk of the human spirit(soul-aatma), it's real joys rather than just ephemeral and instant gratifications covered by myopic themes of contemporary Bollywood and Hollywood flicks.
With that in mind, let's get started on compiling the list, without any particular methodology:
1) Samsara by Pan Nalin (2001)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0196069/
2) Matrix Trilogy by Wachowski Brothers (1999-2003)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/
3) What Dreams May Come by Vincent Ward (1998)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120889/
4) What the Bleep Do We Know ? (2004)
http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5249920845624238647
5) Meet Joe Black (1998)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119643/plotsummary
6) Lord of The Rings (2001 - 2003)
http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5249920845624238647
7) The Man from Earth (2007)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0756683/synopsis
8) Good Will Hunting (1997)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119217/
9) Patch Adams (1998)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0129290/
10) Anand (1971)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066763/
11) The Secret (2006)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0846789/
12) Stranger Than Fiction (2006)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420223/
13) The Butterfly Effect (2004)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0289879/plotsummary
14) Run Lola Run (1998)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0130827/
15) One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073486/plotsummary
16) Lost in Translation (2003)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0335266/plotsummary
17) Conversations with God (2006)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0489682/plotsummary
18) Forrest Gump (1994)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109830/plotsummary
19) Before Sunrise (1995)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112471/plotsummary
20) The Truman Show (1998)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120382/
21) Cast Away (2000)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0162222/
22) Waking Life (2001)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0243017/plotsummary
23) A Beautiful Mind (2001)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0268978/
24) Sleepless in Seattle ( 1993)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108160/
25) Serendipity (2001)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0240890/
26) Star Wars and Star Trek
27) Pleasantville (1998)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120789/
28) Jerry Maguire (1996)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116695/plotsummary
29) Dead Poet's Society (1989)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097165/plotsummary
30) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
http://imdb.com/title/tt0338013/
Ok, folks...that's it for now, and I guess a lot for "top of the mind" please feel free to add on to the list and give your feedbacks. While surfing on the net, I also found a lot of like minded-compilations and films which I had not seen. Here's one of the links:
http://spiritual-cinema-source.com/index.php?Itemid=29&id=98&option=com_content&task=view
May be it's time that they are brought to the small screen in an organized fashion.
Here are a few books which make an argument in favour of this genre:
With this thought in mind, I decided to start compiling a list of existing such movies, and making it long enough to make business sense. For now, am starting with a list of movies at the top of mind, the details of what will qualify for Soulful Cinema can perhaps form a topic for a thesis, but to sum it up in short, it should be soothing, intriguing cinema which talks about living life fully and tries to wonder about where we come from, where to we go and why we are here. I know the same can be defined in many more ways, and feel free to give your feedback, but in any case, it has to talk of the human spirit(soul-aatma), it's real joys rather than just ephemeral and instant gratifications covered by myopic themes of contemporary Bollywood and Hollywood flicks.
With that in mind, let's get started on compiling the list, without any particular methodology:
1) Samsara by Pan Nalin (2001)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0196069/
2) Matrix Trilogy by Wachowski Brothers (1999-2003)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/
3) What Dreams May Come by Vincent Ward (1998)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120889/
4) What the Bleep Do We Know ? (2004)
http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5249920845624238647
5) Meet Joe Black (1998)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119643/plotsummary
6) Lord of The Rings (2001 - 2003)
http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=5249920845624238647
7) The Man from Earth (2007)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0756683/synopsis
8) Good Will Hunting (1997)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119217/
9) Patch Adams (1998)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0129290/
10) Anand (1971)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066763/
11) The Secret (2006)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0846789/
12) Stranger Than Fiction (2006)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420223/
13) The Butterfly Effect (2004)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0289879/plotsummary
14) Run Lola Run (1998)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0130827/
15) One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073486/plotsummary
16) Lost in Translation (2003)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0335266/plotsummary
17) Conversations with God (2006)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0489682/plotsummary
18) Forrest Gump (1994)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109830/plotsummary
19) Before Sunrise (1995)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112471/plotsummary
20) The Truman Show (1998)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120382/
21) Cast Away (2000)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0162222/
22) Waking Life (2001)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0243017/plotsummary
23) A Beautiful Mind (2001)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0268978/
24) Sleepless in Seattle ( 1993)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108160/
25) Serendipity (2001)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0240890/
26) Star Wars and Star Trek
27) Pleasantville (1998)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120789/
28) Jerry Maguire (1996)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116695/plotsummary
29) Dead Poet's Society (1989)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097165/plotsummary
30) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
http://imdb.com/title/tt0338013/
Ok, folks...that's it for now, and I guess a lot for "top of the mind" please feel free to add on to the list and give your feedbacks. While surfing on the net, I also found a lot of like minded-compilations and films which I had not seen. Here's one of the links:
http://spiritual-cinema-source.com/index.php?Itemid=29&id=98&option=com_content&task=view
May be it's time that they are brought to the small screen in an organized fashion.
Here are a few books which make an argument in favour of this genre:
- Spiritual Cinema by Gay Hendricks, Stephen Simon
- The Force Is With You: Mystical Movie Messages That Inspire Our Lives by Stephen Simon
- Reel Spirit: A Guide to Movies That Inspire, Explore and Empower by Raymond Teague
- Cinema Nirvana: Enlightenment Lessons from the Movies by Dean Sluyter
- Movies and the Meaning of Life by Kimberly Ann Blessing, Paul J. Tudico
- The Dharma of Star Wars by Matthew Bortolin
posted by Navendu at
1:22 AM
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