THE DHAMMA BROTHERS
East Meets West in the Deep South
Special Showing at the Waisman Center, UW-Madison
The Dhamma Brothers, a documentary on meditation practice in prison
Free public screening at the Waisman Center, UW-Madison
Thursday, March 26, 2009
1500 Highland Avenue • Friends of the Waisman Center Auditorium
Film begins at 7:00 p.m.
Panel discussion will follow the film. Panelists include:
- Dimitri Topitzes (moderator), UW-Milwaukee Assistant Professor of Social Work and board member of the Illinois Vipassana Meditation Center
- Jenny Phillips, cultural anthropologist, therapist and the film's producer
- Lucia Meijer, a former Seattle warden whose correctional facility hosted 20 such intensive meditation courses
- Richard Davidson, UW-Madison William James and Vilas Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry
- Stan Stojkovic, Dean of the UW-Milwaukee Helen Bader School of Social Welfare
Sponsored by:
- Helen Bader School of Social Welfare, University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee
- Center for Creating a Healthy Mind, Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin – Madison
- Vipassana Prison Trust
East Meets West in the Deep South
An overcrowded maximum-security prison—the end of the line in Alabama’s correctional system—is forever changed by the influence of an ancient meditation program. The Dhamma Brothers tells a dramatic tale of human potential and transformation as it closely follows and documents the stories of the prison inmates who enter into this arduous and intensive program. It challenges assumptions about the nature of prisons as places of punishment rather than rehabilitation and raises the question: Is it possible for these men, some of whom have committed horrendous crimes, to change?
For more information contact:
Bonnie Thorne: bthorne@wisc.edu or
Susan Jensen: sjensen@Waisman.Wisc.Edu