Emergence Magazine presents

Shifting Landscapes Film Series

Taste of the Land

by Adam Loften & Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee Film

Note from the Editors

It has always been a radical act to share stories during dark times. They are regenerative spaces of creation and renewal. As we experience a loss of sacred connection to the earth, we share stories that explore the timeless connections between ecology, culture, and spirituality.

Recent Stories

ENGAGE

Storytelling with ជាតិ Cheate and ចិត្ត Chett: Tasting the Land with an Open Heart

A Four-Part Course with Award-Winning Filmmaker Kalyanee Mam

October 8 – 29, 2024
Online Course
Registration Open
Feature

SHIFTING LANDSCAPES

FILM SERIES

Emergence Magazine presents Shifting Landscapes, a documentary series, directed by Emmy- and Peabody-nominated filmmakers Adam Loften and Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee, exploring the power of art and story to orient us amid the darkness of our time.

Our Annual Print Edition

Emergence Magazine, Vol. 5: Time

Our first hardcover edition, Time: Volume 5 explores the vast mystery of Time, journeying through its many landscapes: deep time, geological time, kinship time, ancestral time, and sacramental time. If we can recognize a different kind of Time, can we come to dwell within it?

Order Now

Breathing with the Forest

by Marshmallow Laser Feast Open Feature

An immersive experience of shared breath with the Amazon rainforest.

Podcast

Emergence’s weekly podcast features exclusive interviews, author-narrated essays, poetry, multipart series, and more.
This Week’s Podcast

ស្គាល់ មជាតិ Knowing Your Taste

by Kalyanee Mam

Released this week, the final film in our Shifting Landscapes documentary film series, Taste of the Land, tells the story of Cambodian-American filmmaker Kalyanee Mam’s search for a spiritual relationship with her homeland. In this companion essay by Kalyanee, she delves deeper into her experiences of cheate—the Khmer word for “taste”—and how she came to understand that to truly know the essence of the land, one must know its taste. Tracing her life back to its very beginnings, she shares her first “land-taste”—the sweet flavor of Battambang oranges—and the many tastes that came after that slowly deepened the yearning in her heart to truly know the soils, waters, mountains, people, and plants of Cambodia. As she reflects on the spiritual fallout of her family’s severed relationship with their homeland, she also contemplates the essential connection that was kept alive through stories, language, and food shared by her parents.

This Week’s Podcast

Released this week, the final film in our Shifting Landscapes documentary film series, Taste of the Land, tells the story of Cambodian-American filmmaker Kalyanee Mam’s search for a spiritual relationship with her homeland. In this companion essay by Kalyanee, she delves deeper into her experiences of cheate—the Khmer word for “taste”—and how she came to understand that to truly know the essence of the land, one must know its taste. Tracing her life back to its very beginnings, she shares her first “land-taste”—the sweet flavor of Battambang oranges—and the many tastes that came after that slowly deepened the yearning in her heart to truly know the soils, waters, mountains, people, and plants of Cambodia. As she reflects on the spiritual fallout of her family’s severed relationship with their homeland, she also contemplates the essential connection that was kept alive through stories, language, and food shared by her parents.

Stories of Taste

ENGAGE

Seeds of Radical Renewal: A hybrid in-person & online leadership course (UK)

Sharpham Trust, Devon, England

Online: April 30 – June 4, 2025
In-person: June 18 – 21, 2025
Admissions Open

Seeds of Radical Renewal: A hybrid in-person & online leadership course (US)

Whidbey Institute, Washington, US

Online: August 6 – September 10, 2025
In-person: September 25 – 28, 2025
Admissions Open

ENGAGE

The Song of the Seasons

Devon, England

June 26 – 29, 2025
In-person Retreat
Registration Open

The Song of the Seasons

Whidbey Institute, Washington State, US

May 23 – 26, 2025
In-person Retreat
Registration Open

Lost World

by Kalyanee Mam Watch Film

As Singapore dredges sand out from beneath Cambodia’s mangrove forests, an ecosystem, a communal way of life, and one woman’s relationship to her beloved home are faced with the threat of erasure.

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