What we hope for: the healing touch of word, sound and image
The short film November Rose is a collaborative project of consolation and our gift to you. We wish to reach out to those who have lost a loved one and offer what we can as creative human beings: the healing touch of word, sound and image. We hope this will bring comfort, inspiration and healing in a time of loss, life and love.
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/ Meditation
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Kathrin Stengel (Author):
"What I have experienced is certainly not unique and something I share with many humans: losing my beloved, surviving the death of a loved one. This experience made it painfully clear to me that, as much as we all think about and probably fear our own death, most often death shows its face for the first time not at the end of our life but in the midst of it. The closer we were to our beloved, and hence to the epicenter of the beloved’s death, the more we feel the tremors. Our very being will be changed forever, our identity will have to be rebuilt. As a philosopher and author, I work with words in the hopes that these words might touch others, give voice to human experiences, allow them to be heard and shared in new ways. There is an invisible aura to words, there is a way that words can touch us in our hearts, and if anyone can bring this aura to light and touch our hearts through images, it is Thomas Riedelsheimer."
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Thomas Riedelsheimer (Film):
"In my career as a filmmaker and cameraman I have always struggled with words, and I still do. I love the unspoken poetry bespoken by images, which lets your mind wander and your emotions rise to the surface. Putting images and words together is like a delicate dance – the difficult balancing act of allowing both to breathe according to their very own respective rhythms. I hope that Kathrin and I have succeeded in providing for an experience that is profound and capacious enough for you to be able to appreciate and make the precious thoughts expressed in November Rose your own.
I shot the footage for this film over the past 15 years in various locations across the globe – Mexico, Canada, the US, Japan and Europe, among others. When on a film shoot or a vacation trip, I always tend to carry a small camera with me. The short scenes are inspired by a Japanese form of poetry called Haiku, which allows us to enjoy beauty and reflect on our own existence through momentary observations in nature."
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Hardcover
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Softcover
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"... this book of consolation [is] amazing in its philosophical purity ..." –Durs Grünbein
... the most excellent book on grief I have read ..." –Annie Moore, The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow "... November Rose: A Speech on Death should be required reading before you go to a funeral home, or before you meet someone who has lost a beloved..." –Louie Free, The Louie b. Free Radio Show "... exquisite,eloquent, and beautifully thought through. It's philosophy as meditation ..." –Claudia Weinstein, 60 Minutes |
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