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Community Corner

Free Film: "The Dhamma Brothers"

East Meets West in the Deep South

The Dhamma Brothers made its world premiere and took second place at the Rhode Island International Film Festival in 2007, tied for Best Feature Documentary at the Woods Hole Film Festival 2007, and won the 2007 National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD) Prevention for a Safer Society (PASS) Award. The film has won awards in 80 film festivals around the world and Phillips has spoken at many venues, including The Oprah Winfrey Show.

 Film Synopsis.  An overcrowded maximum-security prison—the end of the line in Alabama’s correctional 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 dwells a host of convicts locked away from the outside world for life. 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 (Mindfulness Meditation) retreat, an emotionally and physically demanding course of silent meditation lasting ten days.   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 Correction Facility who enter into this arduous and intensive program. This film, with the power to dismantle stereotypes about men behind prison bars also, in the words of Sister Helen Prejean (Dead Man Walking), “gives you hope for the human race." 


This event is part of the kickoff of Mind, Body, Spirit 2014: Mindfulness Through the Senses, a 6-week program about the integration of mindfulness practices into everyday life. The free program runs at Amicable Congregational Church in Tiverton, RI from March 9 through April 20. Visit www.amicablechurch.org for more information.

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