THE FOUNDATION FOR UNIVERSAL RESPONSIBILITY
of His Holiness the Dalai Lama
&
ALLIANCE FRANCAISE d'AHMEDABAD

present

FILMS ON TIBET
7th to 10th July, 2010

Schedule:

• 7 July 2010, Wednesday, 5.30 pm

DREAMING LHASA

director: Ritu Sarin | Tenzing Sonam
90 mins|English|Tibetan|English subtitles

“This quiet little film is well propelled by the powers of gentle persuasion and emotional subtlety.” - THE HINDUSTAN TIMES

“A film of both personal honesty and social insight...a keenly felt and
well-told story of nations and the individual people who form them.” - NEW YORK SUN

1st Asian Festival of 1st Films, Singapore
Nominated Best Picture
Best Screenplay, 2005

Synopsis: 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.

www.dreaminglhasa.com

• 8 July 2010, Thursday, 5.30 pm

A STRANGER IN MY NATIVE LAND

director: Ritu Sarin | Tenzing Sonam
32 mins|Tibetan|Mandarin|English subtitles

Synopsis: A Stranger in My Native Land is the poignant and personal account of Tenzing Sonam's first ever visit to his homeland. From the far reaches of Amdo Province, where Tibetans have lost their language, to Lhasa, the heart of the country, the film captures his meetings with long-lost relatives and conveys a sense of the desperation of Tibet as a country under occupation.

• 9 July 2010, Friday, 5.00 pm

MELTDOWN IN TIBET

director: Michael Buckley

Synopsis: Using undercover footage and stills, Meltdown in Tibet blows the lid off China's huge and potentially catastrophic dam-building projects in Tibet. The mighty rivers sourced in Tibet are lifelines to the people of India and Southeast Asia. These rivers are at great risk from rapidly receding glaciers—a meltdown accelerated by climate change—and from large-scale damming and diversion, due to massive Chinese engineering projects. To make way for these hydropower projects and for mining ventures, Tibetan nomads are being forced off their traditional grassland habitat—and resettled in bleak villages, where they cannot make a decent living.

The film raises some disturbing questions about a looming eco-disaster. If Himalayan glaciers vanish, what will happen to the rivers of Tibet? What is the fate of people in nations downstream that depend on those rivers? Why is China building so many large dams on the Tibetan plateau? What on earth are China's engineers getting up to?

Filmmaker: Michael Buckley has long been involved in research on travel to Tibet, with a number of published books. This is his first film approach.

• 10 July 2010, Saturday, 5.30 pm

TIBET: MURDER IN THE SNOW

director: Mark Gould
50 mins|English|Tibetan

Synopsis: In an incident that shocked the world, a teenage nun was killed when Chinese border police opened fire on a group of pilgrims as they fled Tibet over the infamous NangPa Pass. The shooting was witnessed international mountain climbers who filmed the events and helped rescue a survivor before broadcasting the story to the world.

Using shocking footage, reenactments and interviews with witness and survivors, Murder in the Snow tells of thousands of young Tibetans who risk their lives each year to illegally cross the rugged Himalaya Mountains in an attempt to see their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, or attend school in India.

Click here to visit: Alliance Francaise d'Ahmedabad

VENUE:
Marvel Art Space
Shapath I, Ground Floor
opp. Rajpath Club, S G Road
Ahmedabad-15, India

For more info on festival:
Alliance Française d'Ahmedabad
Vir Kinariwala Marg, Opp. Gujarat College
Ellisbridge, Ahmedabad - 380006
Phone:    (079) 26 40 15 51, 26 56 02 71.
Fax:    +91-79-26 56 02 11.
Email: ahmedabad@afindia.org

ENTRANCE FREE

ALL ARE WELCOME!

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