Zen Brats
a documentary film
by Elizabeth Thompson

Zen Brats is a documentary about a group of smart, hip 20 year-olds who grew up the sons and daughters of Zen monastics. The film follows them as they grapple with their upbringing, the sincerity and hypocrisy of those who raised them, and what it all means as they forge ahead into adulthood.

Zen Brats is the first in a documentary series entitled BRATS, produced by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Elizabeth Thompson. Each episode explores the lives of young adults who grew up off the grid of mainstream American culture: Anarchist Brats, Circus Brats, Black Panther Brats, Sex Worker Brats, Commune Brats, Dead Head Brats....

The pressing question for these thoughtful, witty, outspoken kids on the eve of adulthood is this: will they define themselves with or against the counter-cultural life choices of their parents? Or will they integrate aspects of their upbringing into a whole new identity that feels authentically their own? Each episode of BRATS will follow the unfolding stories of these off-the-grid kids as they face off with their parents and try to come to terms with who they are.