L'Ashram d'Alice Coltrane
( Alice Coltrane's Ashram )

Vincent Moon, Priscilla Telmon
2019 - 33 min - Video Full HD - Couleur et Noir & Blanc - États-Unis, France

English summary
The Sai Anantam Ashram was founded in 1983 by Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda, on sacred and serene land in the Santa Monica Mountains of Agoura, California. Through the years, a multi-ethnic and multi-generational spiritual community emerged. One of the high points of this very special and loving environment took shape on Sundays, when Alice, also referred to as Swamini or Turiyasangitandanda by her family and students, would lead the community in a musical ceremony.
Swamini took traditional Sanskrit chants and mantras, along with original compositions, and interwove them with her gospel roots, classical training, and dynamic avant-garde harmonics to create an extraordinarily powerful and unique sound.
In the spring of 2017, film-makers Vincent Moon and Priscilla Telmon were invited to make a contemporaneous portrait, of this very welcoming and beautiful spiritual community, which included speaking with some of the community's elders, as well as Alice's sister, singer Marilyn McLeod.
The Sai Anantam Ashram’s temporal location ceased at the end of 2017, and sadly all of its buildings were destroyed in the California wildfires of November, 2018. However, the spirit and essence of the Ashram continues, and the work of Swamini Alice Coltrane Turiysangitananda still keeps spreading.