For the past 20 years, Ron Fricke and Mark Magidson’s Baraka has dazzled filmgoers into submission with its narrative-free, highly poetic cascade of images drawn from all over the globe. The four-years-in-the-making Samsara is a sequel, exploring the concepts of cyclical existence and “humanity’s relationship to the eternal” via ravishing footage shot in 25 countries on 70 mm film and screened at the Cinerama in a reportedly stunning 4K resolution digital projection. Add in music from Michael Stearns, Lisa Gerrard, and Marcello De Francisci, and some spare glaucoma medicine, and you’ll be in heaven. (Cinerama; 2100 Fourth Ave; www.cinerama.com; 10:45 am, 1:30, 4:15, 7, 9:45 pm; $15)

David Schmader—former weed columnist and Stranger associate editor—is the author of the solo plays Straight and Letter to Axl, which he’s performed in Seattle and across the US. His latest...