Synopsis for Tibetan Film Festival
Tibetan Film Festival 2009
KUNDUN
Praised as one of the best films of the year, Kundun is a motion picture masterpiece directed by five-time Acadamy Award-nominated director Martin Scorsese. It’s the incredible true story of one of the world’s most fascinating leasers-Tibet’s Dalai Lama-and his daring struggle to rule a nation at one of the most challenging times in its history.
Powerfully told and set against a backdrop of world politics-the film’s release created an international uproar!
Featuring a striking, Oscar-nominated score by renowned composer Philip Glass, this extraordinary motion picture has been greeted with both controversy and worldwide acclaim-experience it for yourself!
THE TIBETANS, A LIFE IN EXILE
This documentary examines the difficulties confronting Tibetans in exile as they struggle to adapt to the increasing intrusion of the modern world.
Filmed in the colourful town of Dharamsala in the stunning Indian Himalayas, this film powerfully illustrates the growing conflict between traditional Tibetan culture and encroaching outside influences.
Featuring the Dalai Lama and several other prominent community figures who speak with passion and conviction about the gravity of the current situation.
DREAMING OF TIBET
In isolated communities around the world, particularly in India, Nepal and the United States, Tibetan exiles have created a 'virtual Tibet,' where they have endured and even flourished in the face of overwhelming adversity. DREAMING OF TIBET follows their arduous journeys from Tibet into exile over a 19,000 foot Himalayan pass. It's a flight that the Dalal Lama took in 1958 and over 150,000 of his followers have taken since then. Most have only minimal clothing and meager provisions to make the life-threatening trek. Many die along the way.
This intimate documentary is about the resilience of the human spirit under the most dire circumstances. The film looks at the lives of three extraordinary Tibetan exiles who have survived in exile and are deeply involved in working for the survival of their culture. They are, in short, Ms. Tseten Phanucharas, a political activist, who is one of the Dalai Lama's press coordinators in Los Angeles; Ms. Tsering Lhamo, a nurse working with recent refugees in Kathmandu, Nepal; and Mr. Ngawang Ugyen, a monk in the Mt. Everest foothills.
DREAMING OF TIBET captures the difficult challenges they each face and conveys the sense of hope they bring to their day-to-day lives in spite of great hardship and loss.
Also features His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and author/climber Jon Krakauer, with appearances by actors Richard Gere and Goldie Hawn.
WINDHORSE
Academy Award - winning filmmaker Paul Wagner’s courageous exploration of the political and cultural oppression of Tibetan people by the Chinese regime has stirred major controversy since its first US screening in the spring of 1998.
Based on true events, WINDHORSE focuses on the lives of two siblings and their cousin who as young children witnessed their Tibetan grandfather brutally murdered over his resistance of Chinese aggression. Eighteen years later, the memory of losing their grandfather has affected each of the kids very differently. On the
verge of pop-stardom, Dolkar has assimilated herself comfortably into Chinese culture while her disgusted brother Dorjee’s hatred of the Chinese has turned him into embittered vagrant. Their cousin Pema has since retreated to the solace of life as a Buddhist nun until, like her grandfather before her, she too riskes her life by defying Chinese rule in Tibet.
When Dolkar and Dorjee are called to help Pema, the brutal realities of Chinese occupation in Tibet strike the family once again-this time they must join forces to do everything in their power to help stop it.
THE LOST WORLD OF TIBET
The rare treasure trove of amazing colour footage, preserved and restored by the BFI, reveals the story of the Dalai Lama and his secret Himalayan kingdom in a way never told before.
An exclusive interview with the Dalai Lama, focusing on his early life and childhood is intercut with colour archive film from the 1930s, '40s and '50s as well as revealing interviews with ordinary Tibetan people who remember life before China sent in troops.
Presented by Dan Cruickshank, this astonising film allows s to glimpse into the rich culture of Tibet, showing us ancient ceremonies, Buddhist rituals and family life, from a time before the Tibetan people lost their country, nearly 50 years ago.
THE CUP: AN INSPIRING TRUE STORY
Based on true events, two boys are sent, with much hardship and danger, to a monastery in exile in the picturesque foothills of the Himalayas. As they receive their ordination and orientation into a monastic life, a whirlwind of events not usually associated with the austere atmosphere of the monastery intrudes on their routine - how can they get to watch the World Cup Finals? Soon the chants of the young monks are a vehicle for soccer scores instead of prayers. Caught while sneaking out to watch a semi-final match, they are afraid of expulsion, but they are even more afraid that they'll miss a match. A brazen plan is hatched that pits tradition against technology as the boys try to get a television and satellite dish into the monastery.
ART IN EXILE
A film about the Tibetans living in exile in India and the role their art is playing in keeping their identity and the larger ‘Free Tibet’ movement alive. From the prolific activist poet, Tenzin Tsundue to the enigmatic, ex-Tibetan Youth Congress president / poet- Lhasang Tsering, rock band JJI Exile brothers, to the traditional institutes like TIPA and Norbulingka, the film offers glimpses into an alternate Tibetan revolution.
DREAMING LHASA
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.
RICHARD GERE IS MY HERO
This is a film about four exile friends who lives in Mcleod Ganj, India, the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile, headed by the Dalai Lama. Nyima, one of the friend is a diehard fan of the Hollywood star, Richard Gere and wants to become a great actor himself. He wishes to follow the footsteps of his icon to do something meaningful for his home country, Tibet and awaits Richard Gere's arrival in the town. The film is shot entirely in and around Dharamshala.
UNDERCOVER IN TIBET
Tibetan exile Tash Despa returns to the homeland he risked his life to escape eleven years ago to carry out secret filming with director Jezz Neumann. Risking imprisonment and deportation, he uncovers evidence of the 'cultural genocide' described by the Dalai Lama. He finds the nomadic way of life being forcefully wiped out as native Tibetans are stripped of their land and livestock and are being resettled in concrete camps. Undercover in Tibet reveals the regime of terror, which dominates daily life and makes freedom of expression an impossibility. Tash meets victims of arbitrary arrests, detention, torture and disappearances and uncovers evidence of enforced sterilizations on ethnic Tibetan women. He sees for himself the impact of the enormous military and police presence in the region, the hunger and hardships endured by many Tibetans and hears warnings of the uprising taking place across the province now.
LEAVING FEAR BEHIND
What do Tibetans in Tibet think about the Beijing Olympic Games?
The documentary--Leaving Fear Behind--examines this question and a lot more besides. For five months, from October 2007 to March 2008, amateur filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen and his monk camerman, Golok Jigme, secretly filmed in Tibet. They were both arrested at the end of March after the protests erupted, but not before they had managed to smuggle their tapes safely to Switzerland.
THE UNWINKING GAZE
The Unwinking Gaze is an astonishing film of rare historic importance. Film maker Joshua Dugdale was given extraordinary access over a three-year period showing the trials and tribulations of the XIV Dalai Lama as he faces up to the titanic challenge of engaging with China
The rising superpower of China, home to a quarter of the human race, views the Dalai Lama with extreme suspicion, but how right are they to see the Tibetan spiritual leader as 'a wolf in monk's clothing'? And what is the Dalai Lama actually saying behind closed doors? Does he really want to split Tibet away from China?
The Unwinking Gaze goes where no other movie or journalistic endeavor has gone before in tracking the daily agonies of the Tibetan leader as he tries to strike a balance between his Buddhist vows and the real politik needed to placate China. David and Goliath is played out in front of us as the world's emerging superpower and the Dalai Lama walk a tightrope over an issue of global importance - the future of Tibet and China.