For the last six months I’ve been subscribing to The Spiritual Cinema Circle. Every month a new DVD is delivered to my door containing a mixture of short films, and a feature film or documentary, all falling within a broad spiritual genre. I’ve found I’ve really been looking forward to each monthly offering.

The beauty of The Circle is that the films you are sent are those which are unlikely ever to make it to the big screen. They aren’t high budget action packed movies, but they are usually well made and thought provoking. If it wasn’t for The Spiritual Cinema Circle these films would have very limited audiences and the likelihood is you’d never see them. My hope is that this new outlet for spiritual filmmaking inspires many more to make insightful and illuminating films.

Some of the best offerings have been, in my opinion, the documentaries, which have included ‘Fierce Grace’ about Ram Dass in Volume 5, ‘Rumi: Poet of the Heart’ in Volume 6, and my favourite so far in Volume 9 ‘The Collector of Bedford Street’. This is a moving study of a mentally impaired man with a big heart who spends his days collecting on the streets for various charities, despite being unable to fend for himself. Concerned for his wellbeing his neighbours set up a collective to care for him. This is just a lovely piece about human warmth and compassion.

On each DVD there have been a couple of short films, some have been funny, some sad, others poetic. I like these shorts- often I don’t have time to sit in the evening & watch a full-length movie, but I can make time for a short film. My teenage daughter has been joining me for them & is turning out to be quite a film critic in her own right- it must be my Drama teacher’s blood! It’s been good to sit with her & discuss each film; even the ones we haven’t liked. If you need pointers there are discussion points provided for every film on the DVD and Stephen Simon, the founder, gives a short introduction to each.

My absolute favourite film of all was one of these shorts. ‘Gregor’s Greatest Invention’ in Volume 5 is such a funny, quirky little film. It’s in German with English subtitles & I doubt I’d ever have accessed it without The Circle, but it’s such a gem I have watched it over & again. It shows the love between a young man and his frail Grandmother and his determination to see her walk again. He produces an amazing ‘Heath Robinson’ style invention to help her out!

If you decide to join The Spiritual Cinema Circle you’ll pay a monthly subscription of $21 for your DVD. At the time of writing your first month's trial period is free. You aren’t obliged to continue for a set length of time. You’ll also be able to purchase previously released DVDs as a member. If you don’t like the offerings you can cancel, the DVDs you've paid for are yours to keep. I’m certainly glad I joined! To find out more visit http://www.spiritualcinemacircle.com/