Looking for a good movie this month? One that you’ll want to talk about at the watercooler the next day? Check out our picks for these films, showing locally this month. Topics range from concerns about a nuclear power plant, to meditation and yoga, to the disappearing connection between children and nature.

The Meditative Life series, playing at the Jacob Burns Film Center (JBFC) in Pleasantville, NY. The series is devoted to new films that reflect the burgeoning cultural embrace of meditation, yoga, and Eastern spirituality. Some are about yoga and meditation, while others are essentially meditations themselves—quiet, transporting moments of exploration.

The Meditative Life

June 3 to 8, 2015

Monk with a Camera, June 3 at 7:30 p.m.

Thomas Keating: A Rising Tide of Silence, June 4 at 7:30 p.m.

The Song of the New Earth: Tom Kenyon and the Power of Sound, June 5 at 7:30 p.m.

Manakamana, June 6 at 7:30 p.m.

Awake: The Life of Yogananda, June 7 at 7:30 p.m.

Death by Shorts with Programming Director Brian Ackerman, June 8 at 7:30 p.m.

All tickets: $7 (members), $12 (nonmembers) and can be purchased online at tinyurl.com/MedlifeJune15.

 

Indian Point

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Also at the JBFC this month, Indian Point is a new movie by filmmaker Ivy Meeropol. It goes inside the activities at an aging nuclear plant and poses the question: is this safe? A recent fire and subsequent oil spill from Indian Point into the Hudson River has increased the concerns of residents who question the wisdom of keeping this plant open when the potential for disaster looms large.

Featuring interviews with activists, environmentalists, energy company executives, and unprecedented access to the plant and its employees, Indian Point creates a complex portrait of the nuclear power plant, a declining facility with more than 50 million people living nearby. 

The screening includes a Q&A with the filmmaker and journalist Roger Witherspoon, activist Marilyn Elie with JBFC Programming Director Brian Ackerman. After the discussion, viewers are invited to a reception in the Jane Peck Gallery.

Tickets are $10 for JBFC members and $15 for non-members and can be purchased online at tinyurl.com/IPJune11.

The Jacob Burns Film Center Theater is located at 364 Manville Road in Pleasantville, NY. For more info, call 914.747.5555 and visit BurnsFilmCenter.org.

 

Project Wild Thing

Thursday June 11, 2015, 6:30 p.m.

This ambitious, feature-length documentary takes a humorous and accessible look at the increasingly fragile connection between children and nature. Filmmaker David Bond takes the perspective of a father whose children prefer screens to the outdoors. Determined to change this, Bond enlists the help of branding and outdoor experts to launch a nationwide marketing campaign to get British children outside. Project Wild Thing is the hilarious, real-life story of one man’s determination to get children out and into the ultimate, free, wonder-product: nature.

Presented as part of the Ossining Documentary and Films series, this free screening takes place at the Ossining Library’s Budarz Theatre. A panel discussion follows the film, with Phyllis Bock, Director of Education at Teatown Lake Reservation, Katie Ginsberg, Founder and Executive Director of the Children’s Environmental Literacy Foundation, and Barbara Sarbin, Director of Educational Programs at Something Good in the World

The Ossining Public Library is located at 53 Croton Ave., Ossining, NY. For more info, visit tinyurl.com/PWTJune11.