Best movies like Sound of Silence

How do you reconcile a commitment to non-violence when faced with violence? Why do the poor often seem happier than the rich? Must a society lose its traditions in order to move into the future? These are some of the questions posed to His Holiness the Dalai Lama by filmmaker and explorer Rick Ray. Ray examines some of the fundamental questions of our time by weaving together observations from his own journeys throughout India and the Middle East, and the wisdom of an extraordinary spiritual leader. This is his story, as told and filmed by Rick Ray during a private visit to his monastery in Dharamsala, India over the course of several months. Also included is rare historical footage as well as footage supplied by individuals who at great personal risk, filmed with hidden cameras within Tibet.

Chinese-Indian historical adventure of Xuan Zang's seventeen-year overland journey to India during the Tang dynasty in the seventh century.

17-year-old Jackie is in distress as her older brother Matthew gets his first girlfriend and prepares for college. Though Matthew does not share her incestuous desire, Jackie fights the intrusion of reality on her idyllic childhood world.

Headstrong farmer Rosemary Muldoon has her heart set on winning her neighbour Anthony Reilly's love. The problem is, Anthony seems to have inherited a family curse, and remains oblivious to his beautiful admirer. Stung by his father's plans to sell the family farm to his American nephew, Anthony is jolted into pursuing his dreams.

Oraalppokkam [Six feet high] is a people funded independent Malayalam movie. This road movie has been shot in the tough terrains of Himalayas.

Enter the world of undisturbed birth as 11 couples share their intimate personal journeys, facing their fears and moving through pain into the ecstasy of birth. Orgasmic Birth poses the ultimate challenge to our cultural myths.

US return student Karthik pledges to marry his uncle Dhanunjay's daughter Indu, which was his mother's wish. A small family feud ends with both the families getting separated. He joins Indu's college to convince her to marry him, but mistakenly assumes Bhagyam as Dhanunjay's daughter. Later, Karthik realizes that Indu is his cousin but she is already in love with another guy. He gets entangled in a risky situation when he tries to help a stranger. The rest of the story is all about how he controls the damage and fulfills the wish of his mother.

Summoned from an ashram in Tibet, Ace finds himself on a perilous journey into the jungles of Africa to find Shikaka, the missing sacred animal of the friendly Wachati tribe. He must accomplish this before the wedding of the Wachati's Princess to the prince of the warrior Wachootoos. If Ace fails, the result will be a vicious tribal war.

The loving relationship between a small boy Nandu and a Nautch girl Pushpa. Pushpa is seperated from her Husband and is brought to Calcutta to work as a Nautch girl. Here she meets Anand Babu and thus begins the journey of Pushpa where love enters and leaves her life in different form.

After reuniting with his mother in Ho Chi Minh City, a family tragedy causes Binh to flee from Viet Nam to America. Landing in New York, Binh begins a road trip to Texas, where his American father is said to live.

A con man who is on the run from law enforcement in the U.S. travels to Cambodia to collect his share in an insurance scam but discovers more than he bargained for.

Inspired by the incredible events surrounding a treacherous attempt to reach the summit of the world's highest mountain, "Everest" documents the awe-inspiring journey of two different expeditions challenged beyond their limits by one of the fiercest snowstorms ever encountered by mankind. Their mettle tested by the harshest of elements found on the planet, the climbers will face nearly impossible obstacles as a lifelong obsession becomes a breathtaking struggle for survival.

An intimate journey through the formative years of David Lynch's life. From his idyllic upbringing in small town America to the dark streets of Philadelphia, we follow Lynch as he traces the events that have helped to shape one of cinema's most enigmatic directors.

Hackman plays a New York professor who wants a change in his life, and plans to get married to his girlfriend and move to California. His mother understands his need to get away, but warns him that moving so far away could be hard on his father. Just before the wedding, the mother dies. Hackman's sister (who has been disowned by their father for marrying a Jewish man) advises him to live his own life, and not let himself be controlled by their father.

Young French officer Augustin Robert escorts artist Jean-Michel Venture de Paradis to Egypt during Napoleon's Egyptian campaign. Napoleon sent de Paradis to record Egypt's great monuments and temples that are destroyed by French soldiers in acts of barbarism. During combat, Augustin and Jean-Michel are separated from their regiment, and they start wandering through the desert fighting for their life. In one of the canyons Augustin meets a leopard he names Simoom and a strange bond between them appears.

Follows the journey of a 90-year-old atheist and the quirky characters that inhabit his off-the-map desert town. He finds himself at the precipice of life, thrust into a journey of self-exploration.

The Tarzan story from Jane's point of view. Jane Parker visits her father in Africa where she joins him on an expedition. A couple of brief encounters with Tarzan establish a (sexual) bond between her and Tarzan. When the expedition is captured by savages, Tarzan comes to the rescue

Suffering from acute kidney failure, Boonmee has chosen to spend his final days surrounded by his loved ones in the countryside. Surprisingly, the ghost of his deceased wife appears to care for him, and his long lost son returns home in a non-human form. Contemplating the reasons for his illness, Boonmee treks through the jungle with his family to a mysterious hilltop cave—the birthplace of his first life.

The story is about a young girl, Kaya (Udita Goswami) , living in the beautifully serene valley of Spiti, waiting to join a Buddhist monastery, an idea which has been fed to her all her life by her father (Mohan Agashe) and one which she has never questioned. When Lama Norbu, a senior lama from the monastery has a dream that the Buddhist teacher, the Rinpoche has been reborn as a young child, he sends Kaya to Delhi on a mission to bring him back to the monastery.

As the denizens of a Tibetan village prepare for their arduous annual trek to exchange salt for grain, the community's allegiances are split between aging chieftain Tinle (Thilen Lhondup) and rebellious young Karma (Gurgon Kyap). Tinle tries to maintain his clout and preserve obedience to ancient customs when Karma challenges the old man's power.

After the death of Lama Dorje, Tibetan Buddhist monks find three children — one American and two Nepalese — who may be the rebirth of their great teacher.

Set during summer in the Îles-de-la-Madeleine of Quebec, Mario and Simon are two brothers living in a fishing village with their mother, who runs a grocery story, and their father, who runs a fishing business. Mario is ten years old, mute and autistic. He is withdrawn from reality and living in a surreal world that only his older brother Simon and his stuffed coyote share. Mario is very close with and deeply admires his 18 year old brother, whom he depends upon for love and attention. Simon reads Arabian Knights stories to Mario, dresses him in sheik's clothing and they play out imaginary wars in an Arabian style fortress that they built. Everything changes when Helene, a beautiful young tourist comes between the two brothers. Simon falls in love and begins to neglect his brother to spend time with her. Mario feels rejected and discovers what hate and jealously are. He sets about a chain of events that lead to tragedy.

A love story situated in the Himalayas. A Buddhist monk can't choose between life and the way of the Buddha.

Introduced to a volunteer opportunity with the Doctor's Gift Program, Katie (Mika Boorem) signs up for a trip to China, where she meets Lin (Yi Ding), a girl with whom she shares a birthday. Lin has a facial deformity that discourages her from ever showing her face, but her friendship with Katie helps her start to see life in a new way.

After being randomly brought together in a car accident, two strangers develop a friendship based on their shared relationship with a deaf man. This common bond will lead them down a new path of personal awakening... and force them to each confront secrets buried in the past!

Buddhist monks open up about the joys and challenges of living out the precepts of the Buddha as a full-time vocation. Controversies swirling within modern monastic Buddhism are examined, from celibacy and the role of women to racism and concerns about the environment.

Julie Thompson, a young conservative Christian woman, is truly tested by God and gives birth to a child conceived in rape. This decision leads her on a journey that forces her to explore and redefine her relationships with God, her family, friends and even her rapist Mike Connor, as she struggles to forgive the man who violated her by boldly visiting him in prison and forging an unlikely bond.

Unknowingly trapped in her role as caretaker of her unappreciative family, a young single woman desperately needs to get her own life. When she volunteers to cat sit at her unrequited love's downtown L.A loft, her world, as she knows it, changes forever.

Akhtar Hussain saves the life of Nawab Salim, and earns his gratitude. Salim invites Akhtar to come to his palatial home, and Akhtar does so. On the way, he meets beautiful Saltanat, and falls in love with her. On arrival at Salim's house, Akhtar is treated with utmost respect, provided employment, and a place to live. Akhtar meets with Saltanat and both plan to get married. Unknown to them, Salim also loves Saltanat, but Saltanat rejects his advances, and proposal, leaving his heartbroken. Soon Saltanat and Akhtar get married and settle down. Saltanat soon gives birth to a son. Salim is very affectionate with this child, and the child too grows to like Salim. Akhtar, meanwhile, has fallen in bad company, drinks alcohol, and romances a courtesan.

The chilling story of a young American boy living in France in 1918 whose father is working for the US government on the creation of the Treaty of Versailles. What he witnesses helps to mold his beliefs – and we witness the birth of a terrifying ego.

Well-acted family drama has Khanna's retired elderly widower connecting with Patil's elderly widow after realizing that both of them are suffering abuse from their families.

A loyal henchman is ordered by his boss to keep an eye on his mistress, and trouble begins when he refuses to kill her.

A married woman (Basinger) falls in love with a Benedictine monk.

As the first nomadic tribes wander across the vast wilderness of the infant planet they confront hostilities created by the harsh environment and each other. After a massive volcanic eruption a tribal chief is killed and his two sons fight for supremacy, not only for the leadership of the tribe but also for the love of a beautiful young woman. The age-old battlegrounds of rivalry, envy and passion are explored in this tale of prehistoric adventure.

A lawyer fights a losing battle against the courts to overturn the death sentence for a convicted female robber/murderer despite demands from the woman that her death sentence be carried out.

Casey Powell is a teenage girl who is secretly suffering from anorexia nervosa, a mental and physical illness of deliberately starving herself or self-inducing vomiting, because of her inability to cope with family stress and because of social pressures.

Kyra is a romantic. Unfortunately, she just can’t seem to find the right guy to be romantic with! That all changes however when she meets Trevor, the new manager of the grocery store she works at. Handsome, charming and reliable, he's the perfect match for Kyra. There's just one problem; he seems to have more in common with their colleague Lara. In particular, both of them have a love of dogs, something that Kyra definitely doesn’t share.

Country singer Leana Taylor (Dolly Parton) struggles to escape from her controlling manager/boyfriend Hank (John Terry) as well as her troubled past. After turning to her guitarist (Billy Dean), Leanna finally faces her past, including her estranged mother and the death of her father. Through flashbacks, Leana deals with her past as she attempts to move her life forward and begin a recording career.

A Chicago journalist suffering from memory loss takes leaves from his job and returns to his rural hometown, where he bonds with his Alzheimer's impaired uncle Rollie and his old flame.

A Palestinian boy becomes entranced with a beautiful Gypsy girl and a fairy tale world she weaves amidst conflict in Gaza. The children explore nature, mysticism and what their future holds, while learning to live with the surrounding brutality c. 1990. Yusef's family scrapes by in a seaside camp while his father's in prison and his heavily-armed brother's on the run, parrying with Israeli troops. Salah, Yusef's schoolmate from a well-off Arab family strives faithfully to assist them, while Yusef helps an elderly, blind neighbor escape from his lonely abandonment into the North American dreamworld he's waited so long for.

Bantu has grown up suffering his father Valmiki’s vitriolic tongue until he discovers that he’s actually an heir to an influential family, who was exchanged at birth. He moves into their mansion to protect them from a criminal drug lord’s attack and helps the family sort their issues.

In the valleys of the Himalayas, an orphan boy saves a Bengal tiger cub from the ruthless poachers who killed the tiger's mother. Together they set out in the Himalayan mountains to the Taktsang monastery in Bhutan known as "The Tiger's Nest" where Buddhist monks took refuge after the 1950 Chinese invasion of Tibet and protect the big cats. A new great film for the whole family that talks about the importance of defending animals through the story of the friendship between two orphans, a tiger cub and a child, in a tale of brotherhood and the discovery of life.

Its fame emanates from its role in housing the most notorious prisoners of an era, yet Alcatraz boasts a long and eclectic history. KQED explores it all in a walking tour of the island, beautifully taped in high-definition format. Host Greg Sherwood joins National Park Service ranger John Cantwell and other experts as they explore the ruins where Civil War soldiers protected California's gold from Confederate plots, see where Native Americans made a thrilling statement for self-determination and uncover much more of the island's surprising past.

Kingdom of Bhutan, 2006. Modernization has finally arrived. Bhutan becomes the last country in the world to connect to the internet and television, and now the biggest change of all: democracy. To teach the people how to vote, the authorities organize a mock election, but the locals seem unconvinced. Travelling to rural Bhutan where religion is more popular than politics, the election supervisor discovers that a monk is planning a mysterious ceremony for the election day.

Christmas for Miranda (Krakow) is a painful reminder of the family she never had. Her mother died when she was young, never revealing the identity of her father. But, three days before Christmas, she unexpectedly receives a clue as to the whereabouts that takes her to a beautiful New England town where she meets Ian (Matter), a young man who helps with her search. As the clues lead to her father’s identity and Miranda discovers the possibility of love in Ian, and she learns that her father lived in the small town and now she knows his family (her brother and her biological father’s wife). She faces a terrible decision… Should she share the truth and risk losing the family she has just found, or leave and keep the secret forever? This Christmas promises to be life-changing for Miranda with a new chance at life and love.

In 1212, a Children's Crusade is launched after a young shepherd, Jacques de Cloyes, claims to have had a vision in which it is said that the innocence of children would be able to liberate Jerusalem. A monk, returning from Holy Land, joins the crusade and hears the children's confessions, gradually realizing that most of them are taking part not for religious, but for more worldly reasons, like rejected love and hopes for freedom, the true nature of their enthusiasm is homosexual. In fact, if the children follow Jacques, it is more for romantic than religious reasons. They take literally the famous phrase: “Love one another”.

The film, which won the 1988 National Film Award for Best First Film of a Director for its "excellent exploration of complex philosophical theme for the first time in Indian cinema," is set in the Buddhist town of Sariput in the desert of Central Asia in the 1st century B.C. The town is struck by a devastating sand storm that leaves behind only four survivors: two monks and two children taking refuge in the monastery. Twenty years later, the monks have become old, while the boy and the girl have grown and fallen in love. The jealous monk deceitfully persuades the boy into becoming a monk, yet the girl wins him back, as a result both are expelled from the monastery, and that is when the sandstorm strikes once again..

Story of four young monks left alone in their remote monastery in Myanmar. Shot entirely in newly-opened Myanmar with non-actors, the film bridges spirit, cinema, and traditional Burmese storytelling to open a view onto an unseen world.

Devayani wishes to become a doctor, but ends up becoming a taxi driver when the responsibilities fell on her shoulders after the death of her father. When a woman starts driving a car the people around called she taxi. Joe Joseph is an affluent person who leads a luxurious life. Joe with his two friends joins Devayani and three other ladies - Meera Mamen, Sradha, and Roopa Pillai who are also on a trip of ten days. This trip changed Devayani’s life forever.

Hiding in the Open examines one night in the life of two capricious twenty-somethings searching for direction. Good natured but rebellious Chase, fleeing domesticity, joins his lesbian party-girl companion Denny on a tour through Los Angeles nightlife. Abandoned by her fiance and desperate to escape the solitude of her apartment, recovering alcoholic Hazel embarks on a parallel journey of self-discovery punctuated by the beckoning of a whiskey bottle. It's an emotional experience, finding poetry in it's images and truth in the spaces we try to ignore.