Monk With A Camera
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Film poster
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| Music by | Pivio and Aldo De Scalzi |
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90 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Monk with a Camera: The Life and Journey of Nicholas Vreeland is a 2014 American feature-length documentary film directed by Guido Santi and Tina Mascara. The subject of this biographical film is Nicholas Vreeland, an American who is a Tibetan Buddhist monk, and also a photographer. He is the first westerner to be made abbot of a major Tibetan government monastery.
The film features The 14th Dalai Lama, Vreeland's teacher Khyongla Rato Rinpoche, the actor Richard Gere, John Avedon (who is Richard Avedon's son), Vreeland's father Frederick Vreeland, his brother Alexander Vreeland, and his half-brother Ptolemy Tompkins.
The film briefly shows The Tibet Center, the Tibetan Buddhist center in New York City which was founded by Khyongla Rato, and where both he and Vreeland teach, as well as the Tibet Center's retreat home in New Jersey. Also shown, in some detail, is Rato Dratsang Monastery, Vreeland's home for most of his adult life: a reestablished Tibetan monastery within the Tibetan settlement in Karnataka state in India.
Nicholas Vreeland grew up in a life of privilege and wealth, being the son of Frederick Vreeland, a notable diplomat, and the grandson of Diana Vreeland, the famous fashion editor. However, as a young man, Vreeland left that life to become a monk in Rato Monastery in India.
During his years as a monk, Vreeland struggles with his relationship with the camera, finding it almost impossible to give up being a photographer, but worrying that his attachment to photography as an artistic pursuit might compromise his dedication to the spiritual path.
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Wikipedia