Awareness Film Festival

By Nikita Mehta

Last weekend SF Yoga Mag flew down to the City of Angels to attend the Awareness Film Festival! The festival, housed in the Regal Cinema at LA Live, ran from October 5th- 15th and was put on by Heal One World, a non-profit charity that serves the local community. The film festival strives to bring awareness, information and inspiration with films on Ecological, Political, Health/ Well Being and Spiritual topics. All film makers present are making a positive impact on the global community through their work. The festival includes documentary and narrative features, short films, music videos and public service announcements. All net profits from the event were donated to charity. 

We loved all the movies that we got to see but the film that really caught our attention was The Road to Dharma. For those of you who have seen The Highest Pass, The Road to Dharma is directed and produced by the same yogi/ seeker/ amazing light, Adam Schomer. The Highest Pass is available on iTunes and Amazon and is the intro docuseries to The Road to Dharma. This first docuseries follows Anand Mehrotra along with Adam and 7 others as they travel over the highest pass in the world on motorcycles. It’s binge worthy, so be careful because the only people who got to watch the first episode of the next series, The Road to Dharma, were those of us at The Awareness Film Festival. For now, that is. There will be about 10 episodes at a later date and after watching the first episode we already know that the series is going to be epic. The Road to Dharma follows a group of yogis, led by Anand, as they adventure through the Himalayas to four of the largest and most spiritual peaks in India. What makes this journey so special?  They are on motorcycle, traveling in the monsoon rains, talking about their Dharmicpath and listening to yogic insight from Anand. While you can’t watch the full first episode, you can watch a trailer at RoadtoDharma.com

While you don’t have access to The Road to Dharma at the moment, Adam has another documentary, Heal, which will be playing at the Presidio Theater from November 3rd – November 9th. This documentary, which includes favorites such as Deepak Chopra and Marianne Williamson, focuses on the healing properties of the mind. 

Another amazing film that played at the festival was When I Stutter. Yogis, we know this film has nothing to do with moksha or traveling to India, but it is one of the most touching films we have ever seen. If you know someone who stutters, or even if you don’t but you want to learn more about what it is like to embody this speech disorder, this film will bring you to tears. Directed and edited by John Gomez, the film looks at the social stigmas, the inner demons, the therapy techniques and day to day struggles and victories of people who stutter. The best part, you can see this film in SF! When I Stutter will have a special screening on February 2nd at 6pm on the San Francisco State University campus.

To learn more about The Awareness Film Festival visit awarenessfestival.org.