It's easy to find yoga DVDs with names like "Yoga on the Go" or "Fifteen Minutes to Yoga Buns," complete with a picture of a hot, shirtless yogi on the front. (And I do appreciate the hot, shirtless yogi.) But who's documenting the real masters of our generation? An SF-based company called Pranamaya has taken on the task.

Pranamaya founders Mark Holmes and Ian Albert, who have been friends since the '80s when they met in high school, spent years working in the film industry while maintaining devoted yoga practices. Mark was a visual effects artist for Industrial Light & Sony Pictures, and Ian was a director and producer for a live public policy talk show that ran on PBS. A few years ago, they decided to pair their professional skills with their love of yoga and Pranamaya was born.

Since then, they have double-handedly produced 12 DVDs on some of the most exciting yogis of today. Their subjects—which include acclaimed yogis like Sarah Powers, Andrey Lappa, Edward Clark, Dharma Mittra, Paul Grilley and, most recently, Viniyoga founder Gary Kraftsow—are chosen, says Mark, for their "incredibly deep devotion to a true path of inquiry into yoga and how existence is informed and reflected by the practice."

The DVDs are simple, but polished, and packed with info you really can't get anywhere else. (Yes, the founders are my friends, but they truly do cool stuff.) Pranamaya is a real SF company, often using local yoga teachers—like Chandra Easton, Deb Burkman, and Chrisandra Fox—as students in their DVDs. The company, which operates out of Portrero Hill, has quickly made an international rep for itself, with thousands of DVDs sold and customers in such far-flung places as Saudi Arabia and South Africa.

But no matter what success the future may hold in store for Pranamaya, you won't be seeing them go mainstream anytime soon. Mark and Ian are more concerned with recording the esoteric practices of these yogis for posterity, so they can be passed down to the next generation—and shared with the current one, as well.