Single tickets for Illuminate Film Festival now on sale
Sedona AZ (May 8, 2015) – Single tickets are on sale for the second annual Illuminate Film Festival, May 27-31, which will:
- screen 22 inspirational, thought-provoking films including world and U.S. premieres of documentaries and full-length features;
- feature more than 50 expert facilitators, practitioners, healers, performers, musicians, speakers and new thought leaders;
- offer a series of “View and Do” events to encourage audiences to more deeply integrate a movie’s message into their lives; and
- offer Conscious Film Convergence panels and conversations to focus on developing and facilitating distribution of this exciting and growing niche in independent cinema.
Individual tickets range in price from $11 to $40 and can be purchased online at www.illuminatefilmfestival.com. Illuminate All-Access Passes also are on sale for $444.
On Wednesday, May 27, a special free outdoor screening will feature the landmark film Landfill Harmonic, a heartfelt story of how instruments made from recycled trash bring hope to children whose futures are otherwise spiritless. The event at Tequa Festival Marketplace, 1700 Highway 170, includes a musical celebration with food, performers and conscious vendors.
The Festival officially opens Thursday, May 28 with the Arizona premiere of the award-winning Emma Thompson-produced feature Sold, based on Patricia McCormick’s best-selling novel and starring Gillian Anderson, who will be on hand for the opening-night screening and benefit concert. Illuminate Film Festival closes May 31 with The Power of the Heart, a documentary feature about the astonishing power and intelligence of the heart featuring the world’s most inspiring visionaries, activists and scientists. An onstage conversation with world-renowed speaker Immaculée Ilibagiza and film producer Baptist de Pape will follow.
The opening event will benefit the Integrative Restoration Institute’s (IRI) Human Trafficking Relief Program (www.irerst.us) through which Yoga Nidra, a yogic conscious deep sleep for extreme relaxation and spiritual exploration, is being used and studied for its benefits on PTSD in human trafficking survivors.
During the five days of life-affirming cinematic works that encourage audiences to ponder existence more deeply than their daily routines, spotlighted films include:
- The Pilgrim: Paulo Coehlo’s Best Story, Saturday, May 30, a dramatic biopic depicting the rise of renowned Brazilian author Paulo Coelho, whose 25-year old spiritual classic The Alchemist still remains on the New York Times bestseller list. Post-film actitivies include readings and a musical tribute.
• world premieres of Plant Pure Nation, from the producer and writer of the food-revolution blockbuster Forks Over Knives; On Meditation 2, a fascinating portrait series offering a rare glimpse into how meditation has transformed the personal and professional lives of notable figures; Stephen Mulhearn’s Transcending the Storm, his personal journey of discovery as he attempts to leave an alcoholic and violent past following a dramatic near-death experience; and Down to Earth, the story of a family that broke away from convention and lived for five years with tribal communities in search of a closer connection to nature and a different perspective on life.
- Dying to Know, narrated by Robert Redford, about two conventional Harvard professors – Timothy Leary and Richard Albert – who began probing the edges of consciousness in the 1960s, one ending up in jail and the other becoming notable spiritual teacher Ram Dass. A live Skype with Ram Dass will follow the film.
- iGod, a probing exploration of higher power featuring spiritual trailblazers Neale Donald Walsh, Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson, Alan Cohen and Barbara Marx Hubbard. A live Skype workshop with Williamson, Hubbard and Cohen follows the film.
• A special Sneak Peek of clips of The Connected Universe, a ground-breaking marriage of science and spirituality directed by Malcom Carter, now the highest grossing documentary in Indiegogo history.
• the Arizona Premiere of Love Thy Nature, a cinematic immersion into the beauty and intimacy of ]the natural world narrated by Liam Neeson that reveals how a relationship with nature ignites a sense of meaning and wonder so profound it touches the very core of what it means to be human. The screening will be followed by a guided hike to one of Sedona’s nearby sacred sites.
Screenings also include the SXSW favorite A Brave Heart: the Lizzie Velasquez Story; the alternative healing documentary Bipolarized; the Arizona premiere of the narative feature Bonobo and the documentary feature When I Was Young I Said I’d be Happy; and A Place to Stand, the transformation of functionally illiterate convict Jimmy Santiago Baca to an enlightened award-winning poet, novelist and screenwriter.
A complete schedule of films, locations and times is available at www.illuminatefilmfestival.com. Films will be screened at the Mary D. Fisher Theater, 2030 Highway 89A and the Sedona Performing Arts Center, 995 Upper Red Rock Loop Road. Private filmmaker and industry events will take place at the Lodge at Sedona, 125 Kallof Place.
Topics for the Conscious Film Convergence, the first gathering of significant industry executives in this independent film genre, include: Million Dollar Movie: Case Study: Awake: The Life of Yogananda which screened at 250 North American venues after premiering in Sedona;Spotlight Conversation with Barnet Bain, a television and film industry veteran whose credits include the Oscar-winning What Dreams May Come and the spiritual classic The Celestine Prophecy; The Conscious Cinema Accelerator, where five applicants will be invited to participate in 20-minute speed meetings for personalized project and career coaching from veteran film professionals in conscious film production, finance, marketing and distribution; Champions of Conscious Cinema: Meet the Distributors; and Conscious Cinema Summit (Industry Guests Only): a roundtable discussion with conscious film industry visionaries and media change-makers to discuss how conscious cinema can become a viable business sector within the independent film business.
The Premiere Sponsor of the Illuminate Film Festival is Wolpert & Associates, PA. Principal Sponsor is Pacari Premium Organic Chocolate. Producing Sponsors are Tequa Festival Marketplace, ChocolaTree, GAIAMTV Transformation Network, Lodge at Sedona and Picazzo’s Organic Italian Kitchen. The full list of sponsors can be found at www.illuminatefilmfestival.com.
For more information, and to purchase tickets, visit www.illuminatefilmfestival.com.
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