Planting Seeds (Mindfulness)

Thich Nhat Hanh describes a story of a young girl who was using her computer all day long, every day, and her mother asked him how she can solve this problem. This is an Indiegogo update video for the crowdfunding campaign for the Planting Seeds: The Power of Mindfulness Film, which you can see and support here:

http://www.indiegogo.com/plantingseedsfilm

See also (comments form previous removed video):

"PLANTING SEEDS" THE POWER OF MINDFULNESS

French, German, Italian and Spanish 
(coming Soon)

"In the world we are asking, How can our children grow up to be peace-builders? How can they learn to use the conflicts of the past to provide compost for lasting harmony in our communities, our nations, and the world?

Planting seeds is a film to answer these questions.

It is a project to show us how mindfulness can help to water the seeds of beauty and goodness in each child, and, importantly, how each child can learn to water those seeds in themselves and others for their lifetime, and for successive generations.

We are beyond the time of saying that such an education is desirable. For the health, sustainability, and happiness of our global community, it is now our only real option."

- Brother Phap Luu, Plum Village, France

THE FILM

“Planting Seeds” The Power of Mindfulness (Working title) is based on the book, Planting Seeds: Practicing Mindfulness with Children,by Thich Nhat Hanh and the Plum Village Community
.

This feature documentary and animated film will give children and adults an embodied experience of peace and wellbeing as well as effective tools for creating peaceful, happy lives long after the film is over. It will be shot this July in Plum Village, France, during the month-long Summer Retreat, in which thousands of families from all over the world learn how mindfulness can enrich and heal people of all ages.

The film is the fruit of Plum Village’s thirty years of sharing mindfulness and compassion with children, parents and educators. Planting Seeds offers meaningful, fun and engaging activities that children can do at home, in school settings, or in their local communities, either self-guided or led by and adult. Key practices presented include mindful breathing, mindful walking, inviting the bell, pebble meditation, the Two Promises or ethical guidelines for children, eating meditation and dealing with conflict and strong emotions.

Children will learn inspiring songs that reinforce the practices of peace and be engaged by personal stories of how families and other children apply mindfulness in their daily life courageously and creatively.

The film will help children relieve stress, increase concentration, nourish gratitude and confidence, deal with difficult emotions, improve communication with ourselves and others, and touch our interconnection with nature.



The film will also feature parents, teachers and children from several countries, plus Thich Nhat Hanh, Sr. Jewel, Brother Phap Dung, and other monks and nuns, who will share their experience and practice of mindfulness.



The sustainably packaged Double DVD and Blu Ray Limited Edition DVD will contain the film, plus music from Joe Reilly and other Sangha musicians, great educational material and exercises that a teacher, a parent or child can easily use to bring the “Power of Mindfulness” into their classroom, their home and their lives.

15% of the profits from all sold comic books, ibooks and dvds will be happily donated to Plum Village. 

Mindfulness is a powerful tool to help children, parents, teachers and communities develop the skills to promote peace in themselves and in the world around them.

Help us to creatively introduce young people around the world to the transformational power of Mindfulness via the engaging medium of film.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

You can help by making a financial pledge of any size, even $10 will be an enormous help in making the dream of completing the film a reality.

You can also help by directing people to this page and sharing the project on your Facebook and Twitter pages.


WHY WE NEED THE FUNDING


Making films is expensive. Normally a production of this nature would cost $500,000. We've managed to keep the costs low because our team is willing to work for 45% less then their normal and fair rates, we love the Plum Village community, what they stand for and also sincerely believe that mindfulness is a tool that can help transform ourselves and our world.

All funds raised via IndieGoGo will go toward the production of the film which will begin at Plum Village France, in July 2012 (our team will be there the entire month of July) and will continue throughout the fall of 2012. This includes inexpensive travel and accommodation (Plum Village and the E.I.A.B in Germany) for our small film crew, camera & lighting equipment rental, and insurance, as well as post-production, animation work, sound mixing, AND 



- Filming simultaneously in several locations (and languages) in Plum Village


- Editing and mastering

- Language translation (French, German, Italian and Spanish)

- Film color correction

- Sustainable DVD 2 pack & Blu-Ray DVD production

- Graphics and artwork


- Comic Book & IBook production

- Film festival submissions

- Accounting & Administration

- IndieGoGo / PayPal / Credit Card processing fees

ABOUT THE FILM TEAM

Our "Peace is The Way" - film team “Sangha” has been honored to be asked to produce this film for the Plum Village community. Our team consists of social and environmental activists who are beginning practitioners of Mindfulness. Our lives and are work are continually being positively transformed by mindful compassion.

Smiles, Gratitude and Humble Bows__()__