Sit. Walk. Listen. Repeat. — film premiere + experience

What happens when sixty people stop talking for seven days?

Sit. Walk. Listen. Repeat. is a 30-minute documentary that takes you inside a seven-day silent meditation retreat — the restlessness, the racing thoughts, and then, around day four, something nobody expected.

The retreat leader, Rabbi James Jacobson-Maisels, guides participants through chanting, meditation, and teachings — with a non-dogmatic approach rooted in experiencing what he calls Hamakom: the vast openness where everything comes alive.

Following the screening, you'll be guided into meditation, deep listening, and live chanting — a taste of what the retreat participants experienced, compressed into a single evening.

The aim isn't to teach you about meditation. It's to open a door: to presence, to connection, maybe to something you didn't expect to feel in a room full of strangers.

Your guides for the evening: Rabbi Jordan Bendat-Appell — seeker, storyteller, kayaker, and hot yoga devotee who has been practicing mindfulness meditation for nearly 30 years. He both attends and leads silent retreats as Senior Faculty at the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. Along with Jonathan Perlman — the filmmaker who spent seven years making this film, a decade attending retreats, and still can't fully explain what happens on day four. And a guest musician.

Some of you heard heard me talk about this film for years. It's finally here. It works. I'd love to share it with you in a great cinema, with an amazing program, and bring you along into something that's deeply important to me. Jonathan

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Host or Publisher Jonathan Perlman