FILM REVIEWS

SPIRITUAL REVOLUTION
Eastern Spirituality in the Western World
Produced by Abby Palanker
Directed by Alan Swyer
In the words of the creator of this film, "Spiritual Revolution" is a tool to make people aware of how interconnected we are to each other and to the planet.

This documentary-style film, with just under 50 esteemed participants, including spiritual leaders, scholars, swamis, Zen Masters and gurus, as well as psychotherapists and scientists, lasts about two hours and takes you from the question of "Who am I?" to a section where spirituality meets technology.

If you ever wanted to learn about various forms of Eastern Spirituality, including Hinduism and Buddhism, this film gives you many seriously contemplative discussions that explore the places where ancient Eastern traditions and cutting-edge American science and medicine converge.

The message is one of hope, understanding and collaboration. Technology and religion merge here, in a convergence of the practical, medical and spiritual. Practices that may reverse the aging process, and meditation used as pain management, are two areas where Eastern philosophy has entered into the practice of Western medicine.

More and more people are drawn to the quiet contemplation of meditation and the phenomena of "mindfulness" in a world where technology and multi-tasking seems to dominate, thus bringing a much-needed sense of calm to our over-hurried world.

Published by East Meets West Productions, this DVD is available at your local bookstore or at www.spiritualrevolutionthe movie.com.

Reviewed by Sonia von Matt Stoddard

AMERICAN OUTRAGE
Directed by George & Beth Gage
Produced by Gage & Gage Productions
Carrie and Mary Dann are  feisty Western Shoshone sisters who have endured five terrifying livestock roundups by armed federal marshals in which more than a thousand of their horses and cattle were confiscated - for grazing their livestock on the open range outside their private ranch.

That range is part of 60-million acres recognized as Western Shoshone land by the United States in the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley, but in 1974 the U.S. sued the Dann sisters for trespassing on that land without a permit. That set off a dispute between the Dann sisters and the U.S. government that swept to the United States Supreme Court, and eventually to the Organization of American States and the United Nations.

"American Outrage" asks why the United States government has spent millions persecuting and prosecuting two elderly women grazing a few hundred horses and cows in a desolate desert? The United States Bureau of Land Management insists the sisters are degrading the land. The Dann sisters say the real reason is the resources hidden below this seemingly barren land, their Mother Earth. Western Shoshone land is the second largest gold-producing area in the world.

This DVD is available at www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/amout.htlml

TAKE ACTION:
Write to President Obama and Interior Secretary Salazar asking them to: Honor the U.N. Early Warning & Urgent Action, to stop destruction of Shoshone spiritual areas, and commit to good faith talks with the Western Shoshone now. White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington DC 20500. Call (202) 456-1111 or email comments@whitehouse.gov

Department of the Interior, 1849 C Street, N.W., Washington DC 20240. Call (202) 208-3100 or email feedback@ios.doi.gov