Reverence for life is simply seeking to extend the circle of compassion to all living creatures, all nature, and even the things of the world. Artist and writer Frederick Franck possesses this spiritual sensitivity and for many years has sought to convey it through his drawings, paintings, and sculptures. In his eyes, everything is worthy of respect and care. This engaging and endearing 28-minute film, directed by Emily Squires, presents a fascinating and soul-stirring portrait of the "image maker," as he likes to call himself.

Franck grew up experiencing the terror and destructiveness of war, and many of his sculptures protest this barbarity. Drawing has always been for him an adventure based on seeing rather than merely looking at. It is his path of meditation and staying in touch with what really matters. Franck pays tribute to three significant mentors in his life who taught him what it means to be human: Pope John XXIII, Albert Schweitzer, and D. T. Suzuki.

Squires films Franck and his wife Claske at Pacem in Terris in Warwick, New York, where they live in a house they bought and restored in 1957. He shares his ideas and feelings about many of the "ikons" of steel, stone, and wood that are on display on the grounds surrounding their home. He calls this place "an oasis of sanity."

We highly recommend this brief film (embedded below) to all those who believe in the healing and the transformative power of art. Franck is a master spiritual teacher of the practice of reverence.