Magical blend of art, history and travel adventure featured on screen at Mary D. Fisher theatre
Sedona AZ (October 8, 2017) – Sedona International Film Festival is proud to present “In Search of Beauty: The Sacred Site Slide Show of Martin Gray”. The event will show in Sedona on Thursday, Oct. 19 at 7 p.m. at the festival’s Mary D. Fisher Theatre.
Martin has lived in Sedona for twenty-five years, is moving out of country next month, and this will be his final slide show. This incredibly beautiful visual production will include his photographs of Stonehenge, Machu Picchu, the Pyramids, Jerusalem, Banaras, Mount Fuji, Mecca and more.
Since ancient times, sacred sites have exerted a mysterious attraction on billions of people around the world. Ancient legends and modern-day reports tell of extraordinary experiences people have had while visiting these power places. Different sacred sites have the power to heal the body, increase creativity, enlighten the mind, and awaken the soul to a knowing of its real purpose in life.
While contemporary science cannot explain the remarkable phenomena that occur at the sacred sites they continue to be the most venerated and visited locations on Earth.
National Geographic photographer and cultural anthropologist Martin Gray has spent 35 years as a wandering pilgrim visiting, studying and photographing 1000 sacred sites in more than 150 countries around the world. Based on vast scholarly research and his own mystical experiences at these power places, Martin presents a fascinating discussion of the mythology and archaeology of pilgrimage places and an explanation of the miraculous phenomena that occurs at them.
Featuring hundreds of beautiful photographs, the slide show is a magical blend of art, history and travel adventure, shamanism, inspiration and spiritual ecology.
About Martin Gray
Martin Gray’s parents, who met and married in China, were both inveterate travelers and lovers of art. With his father he was exposed to photography and archaeology, with his mother to beautiful art. When Martin was twelve his family moved to India for four years. During this time he first traveled alone (he went on train and bus trips by himself across India as a young teenage boy) and was also exposed to the sacred, the spiritual. One full moon night when he was thirteen, on the ancient hilltop Swayambhunath Stupa of Kathmandu, Nepal he had the thought, the idea to one day create a photography book of pilgrimage places in India. Little did he know that years later he would do this for the entire world.
After completing high school back in the states, he spent the following ten years intensively studying different Asian and Indian spiritual traditions. He then energetically entered the business world by starting a travel company, which took thousands of people to the Caribbean and Mexico. But, he says “I did that for two years and, though I was visiting pretty places, there was an emptiness in my heart, in my soul because I wanted more – something more meaningful, more expressive of beauty and spirit, more engaged in the betterment of the world. Managing a travel company wasn’t filling that need for me.”
And so he began to visit and photograph power places, sacred sites, and pilgrimage shrines around the world. (Come to the slide show and learn why he choose this type of place) He started with only the faintest notion of how long it would take him, or what it really all meant. Yet it was fun, certainly going by bicycle as he did for the first three years, traveling from country to country to country. Now, thirty-five years later he has traveled extensively in more than 150 countries and photographed nearly 1000 of these sacred places.
All along he focused his travels on visiting three distinct types of places: sacred sites, art museums, botanical gardens. Each of these are celebrated for their beauty. The most beautiful places, the most beautiful paintings, and the most beautiful plants. What Martin will be showing in his Oct. 19 slide show are lovely photographs of the sacred sites. He is a National Geographic photographer so you can expect the pictures will be great. You will also hear some fascinating stories, get inspired by Martin’s exuberant hopefulness, and participate in what he calls a ‘Group shamanic event’. Martin has a very big view, come experience it.
“In Search of Beauty: The Sacred Site Slide Show of Martin Gray” will be shown at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre on Thursday, Oct. 19 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15 and are available in advance at the Sedona International Film Festival office or by calling 928-282-1177 or online at www.SedonaFilmFestival.org. Both the theatre and film festival office are located at 2030 W. Hwy. 89A, in West Sedona.
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