THE BUDDA

A film produced by David Grubin

Some 2,500 years ago in northern India Prince Siddhartha left the palace where he had spent 29 years indulging in pleasures. He was determined to comprehend the nature of human suffering. After a grueling spiritual quest that lasted six years, he at last attained enlightenment meditating under a fig tree. He became the Buddha, the “awakened one,” and devoted the rest of his life to teaching the way to enlightenment that he himself had found, giving birth to one of the world’s great religions.
On April 7 at 8 p.m. on HoustonPBS/Channel 8, PBS will bring to life Siddhartha and his journey in The Buddha, a two-hour documentary directed by award-winning filmmaker David Grubin. Houstonians needn’t wait. They can get a foretaste of the film on March 10 when
Grubin previews it and participates in a panel discussion of the Buddha’s life in a special free program at The Museum of Fine Arts. Houston. Asia Society Texas Center, in conjunction with HoustonPBS/Channel 8 and the MFAH, is hosting the evening.

“Buddhism is growing more and more popular in America, but the Buddha himself remains a mysterious, exotic figure, the founder of a religion in a different key,” Grubin says. “The Buddha never claimed to be God, or his emissary on earth. He said only that in a world of unavoidable pain and suffering, he had found a serenity which others could find too. In our own bewildering times of violent change and spiritual confusion, the Buddha's teachings have particular relevance.”
Grubin will screen and discuss excerpts from the film, then join panelists Anne C. Klein and Jerry Ruhl for a conversation moderated by Ken Lawrence, director of programming at HoustonPBS/Channel 8. Klein is professor of Religious Studies at Rice University and director of Dawn Mountain, a center for Buddhist practice and study. Ruhl is executive director of the Jung Center of Houston. A question-and-answer period will follow.

A reception, beginning at 6 p.m., precedes the program, which begins at 7.

Narrated by actor Richard Gere, the film was undertaken in conjunction with the New York-based Asia Society Museum, which has organized an exhibition titled Pilgrimage and Buddhist Art, the first-ever exhibition examining artistic production inspired by sacred sites and the practice of Buddhist pilgrimage in Asia. The exhibition opens at Asia Society Museum in New York on March 16, 2010, and run through June 20, 2010.

Grubin, winner of 10 Emmys and three George Foster Peabody awards, has been widely acclaimed for his biographies of American presidents -- among them LBJ, FDR, TR: The Story of Theodore Roosevelt, Truman, and Abraham and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided -- for American Experience on PBS.

His other award winning work includes Napoleon, Marie Antoinette, The Secret Life of the Brain, The Mysterious Human Heart, RFK, Healing and the Mind with Bill Moyers, and The Jewish Americans. His two hour portrait of Robert Oppenheimer -- The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer -- aired on PBS in January 2009.

For his new film Grubin tells the story of the Buddha through ancient artwork that depicts the various stages of Siddhartha’s journey, contemporary animation that vividly portrays the legends surrounding the Buddha, and contemporary footage of northern India, where many of the religious rituals from the Buddha’s time are still practiced today.

Funding for The Buddha was provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities, PBS, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation. Additional funding was provided by the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, the Shinnyo-en Foundation, the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation, and The Bumper Foundation.