Events
Sedona International Film Festival
Sedona Green Film Series at
Sedona International Film Festival
Special Opening Events
February 18th & 19th
Every year, the Sedona International Film Festival keeps getting better and better. And 2012 is no exception. Among the nearly 150 wonderful films are special works that focus on the challenges facing the human condition. This is the Sedona Green Film Series. This year, there are more than a dozen films highlighting sustainability issues in the festival. In addition, the festival kicks off with two Sedona Green film and community conversation events on the afternoons of Saturday and Sunday, February 18 and 19, at the Sedona Performing Arts Center.
The Revenge of the Electric Car will kick off the program on Saturday, February 18 at 3pm. Narrated by Tim Robbins, this lively film goes behind the closed doors of Nissan, GM, and the Silicon Valley start-up Tesla Motors to chronicle the story of the global resurgence of electric cars. Without using a single drop of foreign oil, this new generation of car is America’s future: fast, furious, and cleaner than ever.
Following the film at 4:30pm, Sedona Green and Sustainable Arizona will host a community conversation: The Power of Film to Move Hearts and Minds. The panel will feature filmmakers, sustainability experts, educators and a specialist in the study of neuroscience. In addition, there will be displays including electric and biofuels vehicles.
Sunday at 2pm, it’s The Big Fix, a film that begins with an expose of the events that lead to the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling disaster and delves deeply into the corruption surrounding the powerful in the halls of government and business. While this film is a well-documented indictment of the status quo, the community conversation which follows the film at 4:00pm will be anything but negative.
Our panel of experts will look at some of the challenges we are facing in Arizona and the world and talk about ways each of us can take positive action to improve our own quality of life. “We know about the doom and gloom. We see it in the media everyday,” said Matthew Bonnstetter, founder of the Sedona Green Film Series. “What we want to concentrate on are the positive things that are happening all around us…to make our communities, our businesses and our lives better and more secure.”
The panelists include Michael Nash, award-winning Irish-American filmmaker best known for Climate Refugees and Fuel. Mr. Nash will bring a sequence from Climate Refugees to introduce his talk about climate change and its current impacts.
Dr. Stefan Sommer is professor of ecology and sustainability at NAU. He also is an award-winning producer of several films including A River Reborn, the story of Fossil Creek.
Andrea Houchard, also from NAU, is the leader of philosophy in the public interest, a program that helps communities deal with challenging issues. Amy Coplan is professor of philosophy of film at the University of California at Fullerton. She studies how films influence thought and actions. John Neville is the president of Sustainable Arizona and was an award-winning writer and producer specializing in sustainable development. Matthew Bonnstetter, Vice President at SolarWorks and board member of Sustainable Arizona, will moderate the discussions.
The SPAC lobby will host displays of nonprofits and green businesses from the area. Learn what is happening in sustainability at Keep Sedona Beautiful, Sedona Recycles, Value the Verde Ecotourism, Sustainable Arizona, Sierra Club and Gardens for Humanity plus see the latest in electric vehicles, solar and clean energy technologies. There will also be a concession stand will feature delightful foods provided by the Heartline Café.
For tickets to the film, please visit the Sedona International Film Festival website: www.SedonaFilmFestival.com. The community conversations which begin after the films each day are free and open to the public.
Our media sponsor is Green Living AZ at www.greenlivingaz.com.
For more on sustainability, visit www.SustainableArizona.org.
Deva Premal & Miten: Music in the Key of Love
Deva Premal & Miten: Music in the Key of Love
Mantra Singers Launch US Tour & New Album “PASSWORD”
By Lisa T. Greene
The age of yoga is upon us. With yoga studios opening in every town across the United States, millions of people are enjoying yoga’s stress-reducing and life-enhancing benefits.
In the world of music, many top recording artists are yoga aficionados, including Alanis Morissette, Nora Jones, Sting and Sarah McClachlan, who recently appeared on the cover of Yoga Journal. However it is yoga-based mantra chanting that is changing the way people listen to — and feel — the yogic effects of music.
Deva Premal & Miten have been a central part of the chant-based culture shift. For the past 21 years the two have been merging the ancient mantras with new rhythms and musical beats, creating a sound that is deeply rooted in tradition, but appeals to a modern audience. Deva and Miten’s fans include Anthony Robbins, Eckhart Tolle, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Cher, who featured one of Deva’s most popular chants, the Gayatri Mantra, on her Farewell Concert Tour. Deva and Miten have a new album coming out in October 2011 called PASSWORD since “mantras are passwords that transform the mundane into the sacred”.
“Mantras and Rock n’ Roll – The Mystical and the Mythic”
Miten, a child of the 1960s, grew up in the countercultural environment of England, and recalls that “at that time, England was alive with rock ‘n’ roll music and the sound of The Beatles. Everywhere you went it was on the street. It was a time of innocence, a time when you could sense the possibility that life has no boundaries.” With The Beatles and other cultural icons, such as Allen Ginsberg, discovering the mystical traditions of India, Tibet and Nepal in the late 1960s, new sounds and contemplative practices were being introduced into the Western arts and culture scene.
Miten established a successful career in the 1970s as a singer/songwriter, touring with such stars as Fleetwood Mac, Lou Reed and Ry Cooder. During this time he released two well-received albums, one produced by The Kinks, and another by noted Los Angeles producer Bones Howe for Ariola Records. But while this time was thrilling, the rock and roll lifestyle left him unfulfilled: ”I found myself in my 30′s asking questions — I was looking for something more substantial in my life than the usual diet of sex, drugs and rock and roll.”
In his search for answers, Miten left the world of rock behind – even selling his beloved guitars – and entered into a new life of possibilities as a member of a spiritual community, where he discovered an ancient, yet new , approach to music:
“It was an amazing revelation. I wasn’t prepared for the healing power of the music that was happening and it turned my head to what real sacred music was – even though it was western in style, it still had the most uplifting and spiritual nature, especially the ‘Music Groups’ and the Sufi dances. All this music, along with a life of communal integration, healed me from whatever wounds I’d been carrying around from my former life in music, and life in general.”
By 1990, when Miten met Deva Premal, he was leading music groups for thousands of people at the Osho Ashram in Poona, India. Despite difference in age and life history, Deva recalls that, “Although I was 20 years old and he was 42, our hearts immediately connected. I felt good whenever we were together. We laughed a lot… and still do.”
For the past six years, Deva and Miten have had the pleasure of collaborating with Manose, the internationally renowned bansuri (bamboo flute) maestro and one Nepal’s top recording artists. The founder of the rock group AD1974, Manose is part of the world music movement, merging genres, traditions and sounds, while at the same time, introducing traditional Nepalese music to new audiences. For Deva and Miten, working with Manose has been a seamless process: “Manose has a great grasp of Western music,” Miten shares. “When we first started working together, he walked into the studio and I had the track already going. He just picked up the flute and rolled with it.” Manose danced with Deva and Miten’s voices and energy and now they consider him part of their “love bubble.”
”PASSWORD, Deva Premal & Miten’s new album, unlocks our inner technology”
Today, chant and popular culture are joining together more and more, as seen in the growing attendance at music and yoga festivals across the country. In June of 2008, the music industry was star-struck to watch the recording by a group of German monks singing Gregorian chants sky rocket to top the iTunes and Billboard charts.
Deva and Miten love that the music they have been quietly creating for 21 years is reaching wider and wider audiences. They anticipate their new album, Password, will continue to unlock the secret of mantras for an entirely new generation, eager to engage with their ‘inner’ technologies. The new album expands on the chant tradition that couples Miten’s lush arrangements by a group of young jazz artists, with Deva’s rich vocal tones. The jazz players bring a fresh sensibility and interpretation to Deva & Miten’s signature sound.
One thing is certain, Deva Premal & Miten are never ones to sit back on their meditation pillows or rest of their laurels – their new album and 2011 US Tour will continue to stretch the boundaries of the old and the new, the traditional and the innovative – a testament to their artistry and their commitment to the endless beauty of the mantra.
For more information visit www.DevaPremalMiten.com
Click here for a sneak peek at the iTunes release of “Password.”
Breathe America ~ Breathe Sedona
Breathe America ~ Breathe Sedona is a FREE day of Visionary Shamanism and Shamanic Breathwork™ journeying on September 16, at the Sedona Creative Life Center, led by the founder of Shamanic Breathwork™, Linda Star Wolf, and sponsored by Venus Rising Association for Transformation and several Shamanic Breathwork™ practitioners who recently graduated from Venus Rising’s Accelerated Training program at the Sanctuary at Sedona. To register or get more info for this free event, email breathesedona@gmail.com or call 602-605-0082.
What Is Visionary Shamanism? by Linda Star Wolf
Visionary Shamanism and Shamanic Breathwork™ are powerful tools for activating the Imaginal Cells in the human energy field in order to expand our consciousness, become more aware of our inherent power, and take responsibility to do the inner work required if we want to use our power in a good way to create real and lasting change in the world. When there is an activation of consciousness, our evolution is actually accelerated and a quantum leap can be made. We really can’t afford to evolve slowly right now. There are far too few resources for the many people living on the planet. It’s going to take a quantum leap to give birth to a new wave of consciousness and a new paradigm that is ready and primed to enter into our human forms during these highly transformational times.
Visionary Shamanism and Shamanic Breathwork™ activate and integrate ancient shamanic wisdom with the new paradigm downloads that are coming into individuals around the world today. As human beings living in the modern world, we still have much to learn from indigenous teachings in terms of understanding the cycles of nature, living in sacred reciprocity and developing a deep connection with pachamama. The wisdom of the trees, also known as the Standing Ones, the mineral kingdom, the plants, the animals and all our ancestors live within us, in our bones and skin, in-forming us. At this point in our spiritual evolution, we are discovering that we can get our own messages from deep within our DNA, without necessarily having to go to a shaman in remote places of the world. We are awakening our capacity to walk between the worlds and access information from many dimensions. In order to make the evolutionary leap that is required of us at this time we must commit to learning how to open up to our Shaman Within, activate the imaginal cells of the future and then embody our future selves in the present. One of the greatest lessons we are here to learn at this time is that we are the ones we have been waiting for. We are all just beginning to wake up and realize that no one else is going to heal us or heal our planet. This is our sacred work and the sacred activism of this new era.
Visionary Shamanism is not just about going into an altered state and getting a vision. Sometimes when people are drawn to expanded consciousness, whether it is breathwork, plant medicine, or some other form of altered states work, they are looking for visions of light because they are disenchanted and overwhelmed by the intense energies we are all experiencing on Earth during these shamanic times. But getting a higher vision for our planet is just the beginning. While it is incredibly important to think outside of the box and open to our future selves, it is equally important to heal the past so that we can embody these visions. Carl Jung said, “One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light but by making the darkness conscious.” True spiritual maturity involves not only having a vision, but then also knowing how to bring that light into the darkness and into form. We do that by clearing out the obstacles in our psyches that have kept us small, stuck, disempowered and disconnected from our own bodies, minds and spirits.
If we plant a seed in place where there is not enough sun, water, or good soil, it will not flourish. Due to the level of unconsciousness still very present on Earth at this time, most of us are like seedlings that were planted in the shade, in depleted soil and were not watered enough. Most of us were not given the support found in nature’s ingredients to help us flower. The good news is that when we face the psychological dilemmas of our past, even past lives, and nurture the younger parts of our selves that may have felt threatened, rejected or unloved, we naturally begin to flower. When we do the inner work to remove the blocks to our wholeness, a natural downloading of information happens that allows us to be the change we want to see in the world.
New cutting-edge processes like Visionary Shamanism and Shamanic Breathwork™ help us to embody our visions and to become the flower of life. All we really need is the sacred space and healing power of the breath to access these natural altered states, expand our consciousness and discover that the answers we are desperately seeking already live in our own hearts and psyches. It’s all within us and will unfold naturally if we are willing to take the time to do what is most important at this time: remove the blocks to remembering who we really are! We are the ones we have been waiting for and this is our time. Stop what you’re doing and Breathe, America!
Linda Star Wolf is the founder of Venus Rising Association for Transformation, Venus Rising University, the Shamanic Breathwork Process, the Shamanic Ministers’ Global Network and the author of several books on shamanism. Her next book, Visionary Shamanism: Activating the Imaginal Cells of the Human Energy Field, will be released in December 2011 by Inner Traditions / Bear & Company. Star Wolf will return to the Sanctuary at Sedona in December to teach Shamanic Egyptian Mystery School. To learn more please visit: www.shamanicbreathwork.org
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