Films on Tibet, Ladakh, Bhutan ....

vistet

At the Film Festival in my old hometown I saw two film relating to Tibetan culture in some sense. There also was a third film , Cry of the Snow Lion http://www.cryofthesnowlion.com , that screened before I arrived.
I`d be glad to hear comments on the films I haven`t seen.

Travellers and Magicians http://www.travellersandmagicians.com/ : a new film Kyentse Norbu , director of the Cup, the film of a group of boy monks who gets bitten by socccer fever in Bhutan. This new film , also shot in Bhutan revolves around a young goverment official in the countryside , struggling to reach his personal salvation : a ticket out of the country and a job in USA. Any job . The story of his missed bus , different temptations he mets along the way and some unexpected twists in and out of ”reality” is told warmly in a non-judging way .

Wheel of Time http://www.docuinter.net/index2.php?clanek=309&lang=en is a documentary by Warner Herzog revolving around the 2002 Kalachakra ceremony , performed by Dalai Lama in Bodhgaya and Graz. Herzog also travels to Kailash with a videocam to portray pilgrimage performed on trucks and by prostrating.
This film has an intense presence in the Bodhgaya scenes where the faces of individual pilgrims fill the whole screen. This is also the problem with the film ; even within the edited material you can see those who dont welcome the poking of the lens.
The Kailash portion handles these issues a lot better and gives an impression of camera crew that not only observes but in some sense participates.
Unfortunately the film is narrated in English by the director : a narrative devoid of the mirth and occasional respectlessness of the Tibetans portrayed and with a pronounciation that unavoidably made me think of Arnold Schwartzenegger.


Coming attractions :

We`re no monks http://www.clearmirrorpictures.com/wearenomonks.htm is a tale of a group of Tibetans in exile. The title suggest there are very little red robes present , instead it portrays the Tibetans in T-shirts in Dharamsala.

Angy Monk http://www.angrymonk.ch is a film project depicting the life of the Tibetan dissident Gendun Choepel , a bitter critic of religion by rote and conservatism in the old Tibetan society. He wrote (among others ) two books : a modernised pilgrims handbook to India (with train maps ) and another tome dealing with the joys of sex where he stated that good sex demanded equal relations between men and women. The latter book , referring to his experiences, landed the monk in a world of problems…
Gendun Choepel is still highly thought of among Tibetans today and has an award named after him.

Then we have the film Samsara : : the story of a young Ladakhi monk struggling with his felings for a young, short, dusky, attractive, brunnette female from India (sorry Samsara , couldn`t resist that one ...)

I`ll get back when I`ve seen it -appearantly they have it in the local video shop.

volga_volga

well I have seen that one - don't rush into the video shop, I think you might be up for disappointment.

I have been to Ladakh and that was why I wanted to see the movie... the movie had little to do with my experience of Ladakh, although the mountains were the same. the storyline also had little to do with what attracted me in Ladakhi life, in Buddhist culture of that place...

but of course if you are an average tourist, without any appreciation for Buddhism, it is a good show (with bits on Ladakhi festivals). but if you know just a little bit more about the place and the culture, the film does not respect neither of them, and don't go deep enought to explain why monks sacrifice worldly pleasures in the pursuit of higher spiritual realisation.

may be it is worth adding that it is a French-Chinese production

Volga

Samsara

A separate film, video, documentaries section to books and literature? I always watch a few great docus on South Asia on TV and it would be nice to have a separate section for film and docus. But I guess it's just more work for the admins of the site so it's just a thought!

vistet

I`ve already mentioned the work-in-progress film We`re No Monks - now finished and screening from March 10th in McLeod. The date have been choosen with great care : it´s the Tibetan Uprising Day. Wish I could see it myself.

Attached Thumbnails

 

volga_volga

A new Bollywood film called Paab, with John Abraham playing a Delhi cop fighting corrupted Delhi police. What does it have to do with Tibet?

He is trying to save a young Lama (who is a witness to a murder) and to seduce a buddhist girl from Ladakh (who was still undecided whether she should become a Buddhist nun). Most of the action takes place in Ladakh, including John Abraham sporting a buddhist monk robe as a disguise - and doing some serious fighting in it

a bit weired to watch if you know a thing about Buddhism but I liked the music and was all eyes and ears because of the bizarre plot - you never know what you'll get in the next minute in such movies.

vinayverma

Volga, the film was shot in spiti valley and not Ladakh.

__________________
If Life is a journey....travel on...and on..on..on.....

isabel

Some days ago I saw Samsara, I loved it! It's a wonderful film in all aspects! If you have the chance watch it!

__________________
VIVE Y DEJA VIVIR

volga_volga

this poem and a song is from a movie... not about Tibet but about people who spend those few weeks that they have of annual holiday in the mountains. i think many of us can relate to it. and you don't have to take it so literally... it is not just about mountains.

To the bustle of streets, flow of cars, traffic blocks
To city life we return, we come back, as it happens.
We descend from the conquered high mountaintops
And we leave our hearts,
and we leave our hearts in the mountains.

There is no use to argue about it,
I have known for a very long time:
There is one thing that's better than mountains,
And it's mountains that we haven't climbed.

Who would want to be left in the lurch, with no hopes?
Who would want to give in, his heart disobeyin'?
We descend from the conquered high mountaintops...
Nothing doing: gods, too, used to come down from heaven.

There is no use to argue about it,
I have known for a very long time:
There is one thing that's better than mountains,
And it's mountains that we haven't climbed.

Many beautiful songs, many hopes, words of love
Are inspired by mountains, they eternally call us.
Yet we have to descend, for a year or for life
For we have to return from the mountains... always.

There is no use to argue about it,
I have known for a very long time:
There is one thing that's better than mountains
And it's mountains that we haven't climbed.

V Vysotsky

vistet

The complications of this film is that it shows Tibetans committing a political crime , putting them at risk , which the the producers were aware of :

( The director , quoted on phayul.com

The Cannes screening featured searches for cameras and IR camera surveillance to protect the identity of the Tibetans portrayed - a concern that could have been shown earlier in the actual production of the film.

maree

Saw a Tibetan film called 'Windhorses' a few years back... cried my eyes out.

albaruni

The saltmen of tibet Breathtaking vistas, pre buddhist tibetiean religions of the plateau. slow moving, stark, and all tibet.

volga_volga

i wonder how much fuss would have West made of Tibet if it was muslum not buddhist?

...or of Chechnya if it was buddhist not muslim?

Bryan

probably just as much as it was seen by the CIA originally as a way to contain communist China in that an armed resistance or social unrest from the Tibetans would cause them to maintain high troop numbers in the region.

Similar to how the west aided and armed the Mujahadeen and Osama in Afghanistan in the 1980s

However I see youir point and there has been a distinct silence on the near genocide of the Muslims in the Xinjiang region

But then a cuase celeb needs a friendly figurehead ie the dalai Lama or the Burmese woman whose name escapes me

There are other worthy cuases out there but they lack a representative a media friendly image that can capture the essence of the cause celeb ...Doesn't make them any less a valuable cause to support

As for films ...I loved Kundun ...by Scorcese ...He is a magician!

__________________
Then let us pray that come it may
(As come it will for a' that),
That Sense and Worth o'er a' the earth,
Shall bear the gree an a' that.
For a' that, an a' that,
It's coming yet for a' that,
That man to man, the world, o'er
Shall brithers be for a' that.
- Burns

vistet

The latest issue of Tibetan Review carries a story on What Remains of Us.
After recapping the security measures involved it quotes critical voices from , among others , Amnesty International .

(John Ackerley , International Campaign for Tibet)

The article also quotes film director maria Blumencron , whose guide was incarcerated for four years :
The article is in the paper edition - I included the link as a general info. There is some good stuff the online articles section - don`t miss Jamyang Norbus review of 500 years of Tibetan travel guides.

I´ve added the Review and some more to my bookmarks section.

I think we all agree on the need to do this kind of films : "to show what is really happening" - but also "to be careful" .

Phayul.com has posted an article in the same vein (seems to be the main source for the article in the Review)

vistet

Tibetan Review reports that "What Remains of Us" has won a number of first awards at Hollywood Film Festival, the Atlantic Film Festival in Halifax (Canada) and the Vancouver Film Festival.

It will screen at the Times London Film Festival and at a documentary film festival in Amsterdam.

Distribution rights for the US has been acquired for early next year , without any statements being made re the security concerns for the people portrayed in the film.