On Thursday, April 20th, at 7pm at the Emerson Center, The Bozeman Doc Series presents the final screening of Season Three and the Montana premiere of the new documentary, Sacred.

Shot by more than 40 filmmaking teams around the world, the film immerses the viewer in the daily use of faith and spiritual practice. At a time when religious hatreds dominate the world’s headlines, this film explores faith as primary human experience, and how people turn to ritual and prayer to navigate the milestones and crises of private life. The film’s director commissioned or sourced footage from top independent filmmakers from more than 25 countries — and a wide range of religious traditions — each team contributing a single scene. The film, sweeping in its global reach, yet intensely intimate, is a tour de force that unifies these scenes into a single work, told without narration, without experts and, for long stretches, without words at all.

Opening with a young Muslim father from Cairo chanting the call to prayer to his baby who is only minutes old, the film’s approach is both lyrical and linear as it drives forward in time from the initiations of infancy (bris, baptism, and more) to coming of age ceremonies in Mandalay, Jerusalem, and the San Carlos Apache Reservation, featuring boys and girls at the cusp of adolescence.  In Spain and then India, the film encounters teenagers as they lean on their faith to navigate the most intimate pressures of their lives– the strains between two parents, the prohibitions of dating.  The film arcs through marriage and the trials of adulthood through to the rites—some of them solemn, others riotous and drunken—by which we remember and honor our dead.

Directed by Academy Award winner Thomas Lennon and shot by an incredible collection of award-winning filmmakers from around the globe, Sacred is an immersive and eye-opening exploration of spirituality across cultures, political boundaries and religions.

“From a Buddhist monk’s 1,000-day circumnavigation of a mountain in Japan and Hasidic Jews’ ecstatic celebrations in Uman to Angola Prison inmates finding God and Malagasy turning of the bones to commemorate their dead, this breathtaking film is at once deeply personal yet universally human.” DOC NYC

“A diverse, well-rounded, and visually breathtaking documentary. Moments of truth and profundity…flow from the new documentary Sacred.” Tribeca Shortlist

Doors open at 6:30pm. Tickets are available at the door or before the show at Cactus Records and Movie Lovers. Tickets are also available online at www.bozemandocseries.org, where you can also learn more about the series.