Synopsis

VIEW in the ILLUMINATE FILM FESTIVAL SCREENING ROOM

Brothers in the Buddha features Michael Nguyen, a Vietnamese Canadian youth whose parents came to Canada as refugees in the 1980s. Michael left his parents’ home in Toronto at the tender age of ten to join a ‘Brotherhood’ of monks at the Truc Lam Buddhist Monastery in Edmonton. Though Michael wears the tunic of a monastic, he doesn’t live a cloistered life; Michael is fully engaged in the modern world and attends Senior High School with other Canadian youth his age. Brothers in the Buddha examines the personal life and challenges undertaken by this young Canadian, while at the same time introducing viewers to some of the fundamentals of Buddhist philosophy and practice. By observing Michael we gain a sense of how, like the scent of incense in a temple, Buddhist practice and philosophy is intended to permeate every aspect of one’s life.