Frederick Marx

Frederick Marx's film Hoop Dreams played in hundreds of theatres nationwide after winning the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival[8] and was the first documentary ever chosen to close the New York Film Festival.[9] It was on over 100 "Ten Best" lists nationwide and was named Best Film of the Year by Roger Ebert.[10] Ebert also named it Best Film of the Decade.[10] It was named the Best Documentary of All Time by the International Documentary Association.[11] In 2005 it was added to the US Library of Congress’s National Film Registry.[12] It won many major international awards – the Producers Guild of America (PGA), the Motion Picture Editors Guild (MPEG), the Peabody Award, the National Society of Film Critics (NSFC), Prix Italia, and the Robert F. Kennedy Special Achievement Award.

Though Marx was nominated for editing Hoop Dreams by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Oscars), the film itself was never nominated as Best Film or Best Documentary, which caused something of a scandal and led the Academy to rewrite its nominating procedures.

Journey From Zanskar tells the emotional story of 17 small children who leave home and family, possibly forever, in order to save their dying Tibetan culture. Parting from one of the most remote and desolate places on Earth – Zanskar, in northwest India – the expedition must travel on foot over 17,000 foot Himalayan passes. The two monks serving as guides walked this same path 30 years ago when they were children. Written, produced, and directed by Frederick Marx, narrated by Richard Gere, featuring the Dalai Lama, the film tells the story of their incredible journey. Distributed in France by Jupiter films, Frederick Marx is currently self-distributing Journey From Zanskar in the United States through his non-profit company Warrior Films.

An estimated $500 billion is spent yearly on teen dysfunctions: drug and alcohol abuse, teen pregnancy and STDs, school dropouts and expulsions, gang and property crimes, traffic accidents, ADD, ADHD, depression and violence.[13] Teenagers unconsciously push up against the confines of their own bodies, the rules of parents and society, and the capacity of their own minds and willpower to discover the true limits of their potential. The film explains how they need to be initiated into adulthood and the social benefits that will accrue.

The film will show us how historically all major cultures and religions have had their own rites of passage. The film will show us the price we pay as a society for not initiating our teens. Communities are answering the call by co-creating their own functional rites of passage today. We will see real families who’ve been struck by the horrors and crimes of youth and how they’re repairing themselves and their neighborhoods. Finally, it will not only show us teens themselves who’ve been transformed by rites of passage, but how their metamorphosis has revolutionized their relations with family and friends, teachers and bosses, creating positive changes rippling across homes, schools, neighborhoods, workplaces, cities and farms across the planet.

American veterans struggle to transition back to civilian life with PTSD, addiction, unemployment, domestic violence, homelessness, and suicide rates much higher than the general population.[14] Focused on the daily struggles faced by men and women returning from combat, this documentary aims to help average citizens, veterans, and their families understand the multiple non-pathologizing, drug-free healing modalities available that offer veterans support and compassion. The film aims to highlight the best people, practices, and programs doing the necessary work sometimes referred to as "Reverse Boot Camp."[15]

Marx shares the history, depth and the power of his relationship with his wife Tracy Seeley (who had breast cancer when they met), the journey they traveled together to her ultimate death, and his subsequent odyssey through the grief.  He reflects on how his lifelong study of Buddhism (up to and including his being ordained as a Rinzai Zen Priest in the Hollow Bones Order),[16] his work with the ManKind Project[17]  and his studies in mature masculinity,[18] and his Rites of Passage work,[19] all helped pull him through.

All our passages through a normal human life span deserve attention and ritual. Marx's latest book describes how we can do it simply, without great fuss, with minimal disruption to our normal lives, and without the need for priests, ministers, or gurus. This is not a religious book. All beliefs and non-beliefs are welcome.

Written in a no-nonsense style, this handbook offers many real-world ideas about how people can change to live a fulfilled daily life. Each chapter ends with a bullet-point list on "What You Can Do Now." Readers will leave with practical suggestions for living a more meaningful life each and every moment.

Interspersed throughout are anecdotes and reflections from a multi-cultural assembly of some of the most well-respected minds in human transformation: Robert Bly, Michael Meade, Meredith Little, Starhawk, Orland Bishop, Robert Moore, Bill Plotkin, Clarissa Pinkola-Estes, Angeles Arrien, Richard Louv.