The focus of this column is to discuss only positive film recommendations and leave negative film reviews to others. 

When there are no new films to discuss that are opening on a national basis, I decided, to focus on more classic films in Spiritual Cinema with which you may not necessarily be familiar and which you can rent or purchase on DVD. 

This month, let’s take a journey into AFTERLIFE, a Japanese film released in America in 2000.

The premise is simple. After you die, you must choose one memory from your life and then spend eternity in that memory.

The film takes place at a way station in the afterlife where people are given a week to choose that one memory and then they supervise the recreation of the memory so that they can live within it. The choices are all poignant.

• — a man chooses the moment in which he enjoyed his first taste of salted rice after almost starving to death in World War Two.

• — a woman chooses the moment of birthing her child

• —a woman chooses the moment she is reunited with her fiancée after the war.

By the way, no one chooses a work-related memory. As the old saying goes, no one ever says at the end of life that they wish they had spent more time at the office.

They are told that they MUST choose a memory; however, it is revealed late in the film that all the people working in the way station are there so that they can help others remember because they themselves either couldn’t or wouldn’t choose a memory themselves.

The most moving story in the film involves an elderly businessman who led such a “so-so” life he can’t choose. His was an arranged marriage and they were never passionate with each other. She had a fiancé who was killed in the war and whom was the love of her life. The choice made here is beautiful, poignant, and very resonant with the very nature of spiritual cinema.

If we knew we would have but one memory to keep with us for eternity, that awareness would make each moment of life much more precious. So…which memory would you choose?

This Month's Spiritual Cinema Circle Films

GREGOR’S GREATEST INVENTION — At eighteen, Gregor may not be an average teenager (he spends his time tinkering with inventions in the barn) but his love for his grandmother is solid. As her girlfriends try to lure her into a nursing home by convincing her she’s holding her grandson back, he’s using his talents to give her an amazing gift. This beautiful short film is a true mother’s day gift for us all. Written & Directed by Johannes Kiefer. (11 min., German with English subtitles)

SWEETHEART — What begins as a normal phone call from a mother to a son takes some very surprising twists and turns, which reminds us what it is we love about our moms- and how much we miss them when they are gone. Written & Directed by Matthew Saville. (13 min.)

LITTLE BROTHER OF WAR — This film’s title refers to the Native American word for the game of Lacrosse, and though there are many battles going on inside the main characters, they all take place in the battlefield of the heart. A gruff detective, separated from his own emotions, takes on the case of a missing child whose parents have recently died. Through his journey with this lost child, the detective finds his own heart, and helps to reunite the child with acceptance and inner peace as well. Why does losing our parents, whether from distance and separation or death itself, spark a loss of security and an inner sense of belonging? How can we repair these things within ourselves? This film is a lovely guide to the healing of the heart . Written & Directed by Damon Vignale. (95 min.)

RAM DASS: FIERCE GRACE — Ram Dass has been a spiritual guru and inspirational author and lecturer since early 1970’s. When a stroke took its debilitating toll, Ram Dass grew outside his own enormous spiritual understanding of life to grasp his newfound perspective on love, ego, old age, death and our relation to God. Veteran spiritual documentary filmmaker Mickey Lemle grants us an intimate audience with this astonishing and inspiring man, and allows us to glimpse the process of learning that never ends, no matter what your age, condition or place in life. Directed by Mickey Lemle. (93 min.)

For more information about the Spiritual Cinema Circle, click here.