Doing Time, Doing Vipassana

Doing Time, Doing Vipassana

theatrical poster
Directed by
Produced by Eilona Ariel
Starring Kiran Bedi
Narrated by Paul Samson
Music by
  • Ady Cohen
  • Ari Frankel
Cinematography Ayelet Menahemi
Edited by Ayelet Menahemi
Production
company
Karuna Films
Distributed by Immediate Pictures
(2005 theatrical)
Release dates
 1997
Running time
 52 minutes
Country
  • India
  • Israel
Language English

Doing Time, Doing Vipassana is a 1997 Israeli independent documentary film project by two women filmmakers from Israel, Ayelet Menahemi and Eilona Ariel about the use of Vipassanaas taught by S. N. Goenka as a rehabilitation method and its impact on foreign and Indian prisoners[1] which was then known as one of the harshest prisons in the world.[2] The film inspired other correctional facilities such as the North Rehabilitation Facility in Seattle to use Vipassana as a means of rehabilitation.[3]

Synopsis

Two women filmmakers from Israel, Ayelet Menahemi and Eilona Ariel, initiated this independent project. In the winter of 1994-95 they spent five months in India, doing intensive research on the use of Vipassana as taught by S. N. Goenka as a rehabilitation method and its dramatic impact on foreign and Indian prisoners.The authorities were unusually cooperative, allowing the team free access to two Indian jails. The documentary begins with the story of Tihar Prison - a huge and notorious institution housing 10,000 inmates, 9,000 of them awaiting trial. When a new Inspector General, Kiran Bedi, was posted there in 1993, Tihar entered period of rapid-fire change.

Bedi had earned a reputation as an energetic but controversial officer in the Indian Police Service. At Tihar she launched a series of reforms improving prison conditions.But she wanted to achieve a deeper transformation, and when she came across Vipassana she was convinced that this was the tool she needed. Bedi learned that the technique had been tried before in other Indian jails, with astonishing results. The film briefly tells how Vipassana originated and how it was used in other prisons. A Vipassana course consists of 10 days of intensive practice, during which participants maintain complete silence. The strict requirements of such a course, imposed on a strict prison system, had created major challenges.

When Vipassana courses started in Tihar, results were immediate and dramatic. Many prisoners were deeply affected by the experience, and their attitudes changed drastically. The success led to one of the most extraordinary events to take place in a prison anywhere: in April 1994, at a special facility inside Tihar, one thousand prison inmates participated in an 11-day Vipassana course - the largest ever held in modern times.This led to another unprecedented event: within the precincts of the prison, a meditation center opened, offering regular Vipassana courses to the Tihar inmates. David, an Englishman serving a sentence in Tihar and a Vipassana student, volunteered to work in "the Vipassana Ward." The last part of the film present the inner journey travelled during a Vipassana course, and examines the technique in more detail.


Why does practising Vipassana have such a marked effect on people's behaviour and attitude? What do they realize and what do they actually do during a course? A few prisoners - Australian, British, African and Indian - tell of their experiences and their newly acquired outlook on life. The film concludes with a moving scene from Baroda Jail, showing the superintendent greeting his charges outside the meditation hall at the end of a Vipassana course.

Cast

Recognition

Reception

The film received an average score of 64 based on eight critics at Metacritic.[4] It received a 71% rating based on 14 reviews at Rotten Tomatoes.[5]

The San Francisco Chronicle wrote of the film winning the Golden Spire Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival when noting its 2005 theatrical release. They praised the film, writing it had "distinct virtues: It tells a fascinating story. It makes a strong case for an alternative approach to incarcerated criminals. And it provides an attractive introduction to Vipassana meditation." [6]

Slant Magazine gave the film two out of five stars, and generally panned the film, stating that the directors "fail to really get inside the heads of their subjects and to seriously convey the extent to which violence plays a role in their daily lives, choosing instead to follow the process with which Vipassana comes to the prison community and holds its prisoners in rapture." They felt the film's repeated use of "hyperbolic narration....strains to summon a sense of spiritual gravitas" and that the filmmakers brevity and informational tone made the film "something akin to an Epcot Center attraction." [7]

Awards and recognition

References

  1. ↑ Holden, Stephen (July 8, 2005). "Prisoners Finding New Hope in the Art of Spiritual Bliss". The New York Times. Retrieved September 29, 2013.
  2. ↑ King, Sallie B. (2009). Socially Engaged Buddhism. University of Hawaii Press. p. 152. ISBN 082483335X.
  3. ↑ Zook, Kristal Brent (2006). Black women's lives : stories of power and pain. New York: Nation Books. pp. 239–240. ISBN 1560257903.
  4. ↑ "Doing Time, Doing Vipassana". Metacritic. 5 July 2005. Retrieved 30 September 2013.
  5. ↑ "Doing Time, Doing Vipassana (1997)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 30 September 2013.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 LaSalle, Mick (May 27, 2005). "Also opening Friday". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved September 29, 2013.
  7. ↑ Gonzales, Ed (July 6, 2005). "review: Doing Time, Doing Vipassana". Slant Magazine. Retrieved September 30, 2013.
  8. ↑ Its Always Possible: Transforming One of the Largest Prisons in the World. Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd. 2005. p. 307. ISBN 8120728866.
  9. ↑ staff (March 24, 1999). "Award-winning video to be presented". Juneau Empire. Retrieved September 29, 2013.

External links