India, Oct. 31 -- How does one process a troubled childhood? For urban folk with a tidy sum of money, psychiatry offers a way. But this accessibility changes with demographics, governments, communities, and families, in no particular order.

Loving Karma by Johnny Burke and Andrew Hinton, which was screened at the Dharamshala International Film Festival 2025, is a journey that attempts to process the trauma of troubled childhoods, and explores what nurturing and compassion can do for children.

The film is a follow-up to the Emmy-winning documentary by the directors, Tashi and the Monk (2014). The latter portrays a "brave social experiment" by Lobsang Phuntsok, who left behind a life as a Buddhist monk to go to the US, only to return and ...