Film Screening:

Souls of Zen: Buddhism, Ancestors, and the 2011 Tsunami in Japan
(Tim Graf, 2012, 89 min, Germany, in Japanese with English subtitles and English, Color, DVD))

-- Q&A to follow with director Tim Graf!

-- Introduced by Prof. Levi McLaughlin (NCSU, Religion & Philosophy)!

The documentary presents perspectives on Buddhism as practiced by clergy, lay adherents, and families in Japan by drawing on ethnographic fieldwork on the daily life of Buddhist temples, monastic education, prayer practice, mortuary rituals, and Japan’s tradition of ancestor veneration in the wake of the March 11, 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disasters.

From March to December 2011, Tim Graf and Jakob Montrasio filmed invaluable footage of the greatest religious mobilization in Japan's postwar history. This film is the only documentary based on sustained attention to the everyday lives of Buddhist professionals in the disaster zone.

[ Click here to download a PDF flyer ]

Cost: Free and Open to the Public!

Sponsors: The Asian/Pacific Studies Institute, the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image, the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, and the Center for Documentary Studies. Co-sponsored by: Triangle Center for Japanese Studies, UNC Dept. of Religious Studies, and NCSU Dept. of Philosophy and Religious Studies.