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Films We will be screening trailers and films from up and coming directors and producers making it a great place to showcase anything from short/feature films and documentaries to art pieces and music videos. Film by Wild Nomads will be available for purchase. Selection of Tibetan & Mongolian films.
• The Sun Behind The Clouds - Ritu Sarin/Tenzing Sonam - 2009 50 years have passed since the fall of Tibet. The Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual and temporal leader, has lived in exile for most of his life, trying to find a peaceful solution to the Tibet issue by giving up the goal of independence and reaching a compromise with China. But his efforts have failed to yield any positive outcome, and his people are becoming more desperate. March 2008. Tibet erupts as the biggest uprising since China took control in 1959, spreads across the country. The Tibetan people, for one brief moment, demonstrate to the world their unhappiness under Chinese rule and their desire for freedom. But China cracks down hard on the protests. It is also the year of the Beijing Olympics. Even as the unrest spreads in Tibet, exile Tibetans in India, frustrated by the lack of political progress, set out on a march to their homeland, convinced that this is the only action they can take to support their countrymen. Meanwhile, there is a huge groundswell of international sympathy for the Tibetan cause. This is a year of dramatic possibilities for Tibet. Can the Dalai Lama's strategy of non-violence and compromise based on his Buddhist beliefs finally make a breakthrough? In The Sun Behind the Clouds: Tibet's Struggle for Freedom, Tibetan filmmaker, Tenzing Sonam, and his partner, Ritu Sarin, take a uniquely Tibetan perspective on the trials and tribulations of the Dalai Lama and his people as they continue their struggle for freedom in the face of determined suppression by one of the world's biggest and most powerful nations. The filmmakers had intimate access to the Dalai Lama and followed him over the course of an eventful year, which included the 2008 protests in Tibet, the international response to it, the Beijing Olympics, and the breakdown in talks between his representatives and the Chinese government. Set against this backdrop, the film explores the interplay between the personal and the historic, spirituality and politics, and the tension between the Dalai Lama's efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Tibet situation based on compromise and dialogue, and the impatience of a younger generation of Tibetans who are ready to take a more confrontational course.
• I am Pema - Sam Wangyal - 2009 - Wild Nomads This award winning short film by Sam Wangyal and Andrea Paffetti that paints a lyrical reflection on displacement and hope. Seven year old Pema was sent into exile from Tibet by her parents, in their attempt to give her an education immersed in Tibetan culture. The cost of their dream could be that they never see each other again. Pema trekked over the Himalayas with a group of 39 children escaping from their oppressed homeland to seek freedom in exile. The film flows a day in Pema's world - her optimism tinged with sadness at missing her parents. The young girl demonstrates remarkable strength in settling into a strange new world in a new country with new parents making new friends and discoveries along the way. Of course return to Tibet is unthinkable!
• Tashidelek Ama - Arnaud Hémery - 2009 Tashi, a young Tibetan who is in exile in Nepal has a very sick mother. His grand-mother tells him the story of the flower which cures all hearts, to relieve him from his sorrow. Tashi believes in the story and he is going to reach the flower.
• Freedom is - Tsering Choden - 2009 A Nepal based film maker Tsering Choden's three minute documentary is one of the winners of the Democracy Video Challenge , a worldwide online competition, organized by the State Department. Young video makers around the world were asked to complete the phrase, “Democracy is…” through three-minute videos to be posted on the competition's YouTube site. According to the organizers , more than 900 people from 95 countries entered the challenge. An independent jury selected the 18 finalists, and the online voting public chose the six winners, one from each region of the world. Tsering Choden's documentary is a mixture of different images from Nepal with a voice over of people giving different perspectives on democracy. The winners are getting all expense paid trips to the United States in September this year.
• The Search - Pema Tseden - 2009 Pema Tseden's "The Search" begins as a quest for actors for a film adaptation of a Tibetan play about Prince Drime Kunden, a saint who gave away all his worldly possessions. It organically evolves into an offbeat cultural album of Tibetan people as well as a cinematic pilgrimage to understand their lifestyles and religious heritage. On another level, it is a simple and poetic evocation of love, and how despite its disappointments, people have difficulty letting go. The Search -- Above taken from film review by Maggie Lee
• Fire Under The Snow - Makato Sasa - 2008 The Chinese Communist Army arrested Palden Gyatso, a Buddhist monk since childhood, in 1959. He spent the next 33 years in prison for the crimes of peaceful demonstration and refusal to denounce his apolitical teacher as an Indian spy. He was tortured, starved and sentenced to hard labor. He watched his nation and culture destroyed, his teachers, friends and family displaced, jailed or killed under Chinese occupation. Fire Under the Snow reaches back to Palden's birth in 1933 and follows him through the Orwellian nightmare that began with the Chinese invasion. The film cuts back and forth between the past and Palden's present as an activist, living in exile. Our P.O.V. becomes a third eye hovering over Palden's current life, haunted by his memories of the past. We explore the escalating cycle of interrogation and physical violation during his years in prison that ended decades later with Palden's escape from Tibet and a cathartic meeting with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The film also investigates the basis of Palden's resilience. He claims that faith in Buddhism helped him survive the 33 years of his imprisonmen. Furthermore, he insists that he is not angry with the Chinese. He believes these atrocities befell him due to karma. The film's impact comes from NY filmmaker Makoto Sasa dramatically contrasing the serenity of the teller with the horror of the story.
• Unmistaken Child - Nati Bartaz - 2008 The Buddhist concept of reincarnation, while both mysterious and enchanting, is hard for most westerners to grasp. UNMISTAKEN CHILD follows the 4-year search for the reincarnation of Lama Konchog, a world-renowned Tibetan master who passed away in 2001 at age 84. The Dalai Lama charges the deceased monk's devoted disciple, Tenzin Zopa (who had been in his service since the age of seven), to search for his master's reincarnation.
• Tracking the White Reindeer - Hamid Sardar - 2008 In the snow-covered plains of northern Mongolia live the Tsaatan nomads. The young Quizilol and the beautiful Solongo are in love. To prove to Solongo's father that he is man enough to marry his daughter, Quizilol has to show he is capable of raising a herd of reindeer by himself. His family gives him a young stallion to start off. During a blizzard however, the stallion escapes into the spirit dwelling mountains. If it crosses the nearby Russian border, it will be lost forever. The young man can only count on himself to capture the animal. Only if he succeeds will he marry Solongo.
• Himalaya, a Path to the Sky - Marianne Chaud - 2008 Kenrap is eight years old. He is a Buddhist monk and lives in the Phukthal monastery on the peaks of the Himalayan mountains of Zanskar.
• Himalaya, Land of Women - Marianne Chaud - 2008 At an altitude of nearly 4,000 meters, Sking is one of the most isolated villages in the Himalayan region of Zanskar. In just three months, from August to October, the Zanskaris have to harvest and store all their food for the coming year. All the women-young and old alike-work nonstop, from dawn to dusk, and worry about the arrival of winter. Filmed from the point of view of a subjective camera by a young female ethnologist, Land of Women offers a sensitive and poetic immersion in the life of four generations of women during harvesting season. We share their rare intimacy and gradually grow attached to them.
• The Unwinking Gaze - Joshua Dugdale - 2008 'The Unwinking Gaze', is an observational portrait of the Dalai Lama as he tries to engage the Chinese government into accepting the need for a negotiated settlement on the future of Tibet.
• Becoming a Women in Zanskar - Marianne Chaud - 2007 Becoming Woman in Zanskar recounts the moving story of a friendship shattered by destiny when two best friends have to part and to leave their families forever...
• The Lost World of Tibet - Emma Hindley - 2006 A recently restored treasure-trove of colour films from the 1940s and 1950s provides the core of this astonishing film, which allows us to see what Tibet was like before its brutal occupation by China. As members of the aristocracy and the Tibetan government in exile recall, the Tibetans' world revolved around a series of colourful religious festivals, taking up 68 days of the year. In The Great Prayer Festival, monks take over from the government for a few days and, whilst ceremoniously whipping their subjects, impose fines for such offences as singing in public or having a dirty house. The film includes a revealing interview with the Dalai Lama, who reminisces about how much he missed his mother and his envy of his brother who got to play with all his toys. The Dalai Lama found himself studying for his rigorous final monastic exams - which included publicly debating with his elders - at the same time that the Chinese were preparing to take over the country. “We were just so engrossed in our little pond,” recalls one interviewee. “We knew nothing, what was happening in the world, what could happen. And so we lost our country.”
• Balapan - Wings of Altai - Hamid Sardar - 2006 In the Deloun valley in western Mongolia, Sheik Pawli struggles to keep his herds safe from hungry wolves. This year, winter has been particularly rough and an unusually large number of wolves have been roaming around the villages. If the people of the valley don't fight back, their herds will disappear and they too will die. Sheik Pawli, the famous eagle master, gathers all the breeders of the steppe who own golden eagles in order to organize a large wolf hunt to protect their herds.
• Tibet - Cry of the Snow Lion - Tom Peosay - 2006 Is a dramatic documentary that takes viewers through the astonishing recent political history of the country. Spending over ten years making the film, director Tom Peosay presents a clear, concise, educational chronology that tracks the major events and developments in the Tibet-China conflict both within those two countries and internationally. The film shows the beauty of the country's Himalaya Mountains, the artistry of Tibetan clothing and monasteries, the practices of the Buddhist religion, and the gentle spirit of the Tibetan people. But the most powerful part of the film includes archival news coverage, interviews with politicians and historians, and testimonials from survivors of torture and imprisonment. Woven together, these pieces tell the story of the immensely disturbing, violent ongoing struggle resulting from Tibet's occupation by China.The film does an excellent job with its material, and viewers will find themselves searching for a solution and an answer to Tibet's problems long after the movie's conclusion.
• Karma - Tsering Rithar - 2006 “In a nunnery in the high desert mountains of Mustang, a revered abbess dies, leaving signs that she will be reborn in the precious human form. Prayers and ritual must be done to help her consciousness into its next rebirth, but the nunnery coffers are empty. The senior nuns decide that the only way out is get back money loaned out by the nunnery. A mysterious loan was made out to an equally mysterious Mr. Tashi who visited the senior nun in her last days. Given the shady rumours about Mr. Tashi, the nuns are convinced he took advantage of her in her dying state. The two nuns assigned the mission to retrieve the money are Karma, a free-spirited nun, and her opposite, a textbook-sort of nun called Sonam. Mr. Tashi proves elusive. His shadowy trail leads them from the cloistered world of the high mountains, to the sin cities, and a host of small cruelties en route as well as Mr. Tashi's growing infamy.
• Cave of the Yellow Dog - Bayambasuren Dava - 2005 Is a moving Mongolian film that deals with the issues of family, loyalty and reincarnation. When a young girl returns home with a dog she's found, she's unaware of the impact this seemingly helpless creature will have upon her family.
• The Silent Holy Stones - Wanma-caidan - 2005 Wanma-caidan's excellent Tibet-made The Silent Holy Stones, actually an ‘official' government approved production despite its clear jibes at the nefarious influence of Chinese kitsch culture on the life of a young lama.
• Dreaming Lhasa - Ritu Sarin & Tenzin Sonam - 2005 Karma, a Tibetan filmmaker from New York, goes to Dharamsala, the Dalai Lama's exile headquarters in northern India, to make a documentary about former political prisoners who have escaped from Tibet. She wants to reconnect with her roots but is also escaping a deteriorating relationship back home. One of Karma's interviewees is Dhondup, an enigmatic ex-monk who has just escaped from Tibet. He confides in her that his real reason for coming to India is to fulfill his dying mother's last wish, to deliver a charm box to a long-missing resistance fighter. Karma finds herself unwittingly falling in love with Dhondup even as she is sucked into the passion of his quest, which becomes a journey into Tibet's fractured past and a voyage of self-discovery.
• What Remains of Us - Francois Prevost, Hugo Latulippe - 2004 Born in exile in India, Tibetan Kalsang Dolma is a perfect example of diasporic identity. But in this doc, she's interested in what has happened to the Tibetans whose families did not flee after the Chinese invasion in 1950. Armed with a five-minute video message from the Dalai Lama, she goes to Tibet and talks to Tibetans after showing them the tape. The film is a simple but effective cri de coeur for a nation of pacifists who refuse to compromise their beliefs, even as the Chinese decimate the population and steal their resources.
• Mountain Patrol: Kekexili - Chuan Lu - 2004 Is a film inspired by a people's remarkable mission surrounding the illegal Tibetan antelope poaching in the region of Kekexili, the largest animal reserve in China. The story is brought to the screen with great detail by director Lu Chuan. Set against the exquisite backdrop of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, Chuan tells the tale of brave local Tibetans who face death and starvation to save the endangered antelope herds from a band of ruthless hunters.
• Becoming a Man in Siberia - Benoît Segur - 2004 Becoming a Man in Siberia follows the epic ordeals of young men who live in different countries of the giant Siberia.
• The Story of the Weeping Camel - B. Dava, L. Falorni - 2004 Effortlessly blending drama, nature documentary, and ethnographic film, THE STORY OF THE WEEPING CAMEL weaves a magical tale about a nomadic Mongolian family who reunite a rejected baby camel with its mother. When a mother camel refuses to sustain her child, the keepers of the camels often reunite them in a ritual with folk music and chanting, the results of which elicit deep emotion--even causing the mother camel to weep real tears. Exploring more than just traditional ritual, this film speaks to the very nature of love--the baby camel cannot survive without his mother, just as no animal or person can.
• The Cup - Kyentse Norbu - 2000 While the soccer World Cup is being played in France, two young Tibetan refugees arrive at a monastery/boarding school in exile in India. Its atmosphere of serene contemplation is somewhat disrupted by soccer fever, the chief instigator being a young student, the soccer enthusiast Orgyen. Prevented by various circumstances from seeing the Cup finals on television in a nearby village, Orgyen sets out to organize the rental of a TV set for the monastery. The enterprise becomes a test of solidarity, resourcefulness and friendship for the students, while the Lama, head of the monastery, contemplates the challenges of teaching the word of Buddha in a rapidly changing world.
• Himalaya - Eric Valli - 1999 Himalaya is an epic adventure story set against the staggering backdrop of the Nepalese Himalayas . At an altitude of five thousand meters in the remote mountain province of Dolpo , Himalaya is the story of an ancient tribe who lead a caravan of yaks across the mountains, carrying salt from the high plateau down to the plains. It tells the classic tale of rivalry between an aging chieftain and the young daring herdsman challenging his leadership and the affections of his family. The film is a sort of western - a Tibetan western - a universal and timeless saga of power, pride and love. The extreme environment of the Himalayas is magnificently contrasted to the delicacy of humanity and the beauty of Tibetan culture. Himalaya was shot in widescreen over nine months on location in a region that can only be reached on foot, with all characters played by real chiefs, lamas and local villagers. Director Eric Valli has lived in Nepal since 1983 and is also a photographer and author. His work is regularly published in National Geographic , GEO and Life magazines. The film depicts not only the life style of the Dolpo people on the Tibetan Plateau but also their traditional customs, for example celestial burial .
• Shadow Circus: The CIA in Tibet - Ritu & Tenzin Sonam -1998 Reveals a little-known aspect of Tibet's recent history: the country's armed struggle against the invading forces of Communist China. Contrary to the generally held preconception of a deeply religious and peace-loving people, the Tibetans fought a long and bloody - though ultimately, unsuccessful - guerrilla campaign. They were aided in their efforts by an unlikely ally, the CIA.
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