CHRIS & DON: A LOVE STORY

This is the true love story of the passionate three-decade relationship between British writer Christopher Isherwood (whose Berlin Stories was the basis for Cabaret) and American portrait painter Don Bachardy, thirty years his junior.  From Isherwood’s Kit-Kat Club years in Weimar-era Germany to the sun0kissed beaches of 1950s Malibu, their against-all-odds saga is brought to life through reminiscences from Don and Hollywood friends such as Leslie Caron and John Boorman- plus rare home movies with legendary artists including W.H. Auden, Igor Stravinsky and Tennessee Williams.  With Isherwood’s status as an out-and-proud gay hero, and Bachardy’s eventual artistic triumph away from the considerable shadow of his life partner, Chris & Don: A Love Story is above all a joyful celebration of a most extraordinary couple.

MONK WITH A CAMERA

Nicholas Vreeland walked away from a worldly life of privilege to become a Tibetan Buddhist monk in 1972. Grandson of legendary Vogue editor, Diana Vreeland, and trained by Irving Penn to become a photographer, Nicholas' life changed drastically upon meeting a Tibetan master, one of the teachers of the Dalai Lama. Soon thereafter, he gave up his glamorous life to live in a monastery in India, where he studied Buddhism for fourteen years. In an ironic twist of fate, Nicholas went back to photography to help his fellow monks rebuild their monastery. Recently, the Dalai Lama appointed Nicholas as Abbot of the monastery, making him the first Westerner in Tibetan Buddhist history to attain such a highly regarded position. Monk With a Camera chronicles Nicky's journey from playboy to monk to artist.