| Date | Time | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Saturday, February 19, 2011 | 12:00PM - 4:00PM | External Event, Jackman Humanities Building, Room 100, 170 St. George Street |
A Film and Workshop Series on New Documentary Film in Tibet and Burma
This two-campus series will feature ethnographic films by young Tibetans from within China and young Burmese filmmakers, a lecture and film on Buddhism in Burma, and a workshop on documentary film and development in Asia. Interesting similarities between Burmese and Tibetan cultures – both of which flourish in strongly Buddhist, intellectually rich yet economically poor communities living within difficult political boundaries – make this cross-cultural comparison especially compelling. The weekend will feature works of emerging and established Tibetan filmmakers, most of which have never been shown outside China, Burmese students participating in the Yangon Film School, and established Anglo-Burman filmmaker Lindsey Merrison. Films will be followed by discussions with invited Toronto filmmakers. Discussions will also focus on the special value of participatory film projects for young people living in threatened cultural groups. The event venues will be enhanced by a stunning exhibit of images by Plateau Photographers, a participatory photography project that trains minority students in western China.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 12:00 noon-4:00 pm
Venue: Jackman Humanities Building, Room 100
NEW DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKING IN TIBET
12-12:45
Introduction by Frances Garrett
Lecture: “New Film in Tibet,” Françoise Robin
A lecture discussing the recent boom in documentary films being produced in Tibetan regions of China by Dr. Françoise Robin, a scholar of Tibetan contemporary literature and film. In 2003, Françoise Robin completed a doctoral thesis on Tibetan literature at the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO) in Paris, titled “La littérature de fiction d’expression tibétaine au Tibet (RPC) depuis 1950 : sources textuelles anciennes, courants principaux et fonctions dans la société contemporaine tibétaine.” Dr. Robin is a maître de conférence at INALCO. She publishes widely on Tibetan literature and is currently doing research on Tibetan film.
12:45-3:00: Short films by emerging talent from inside China
Film: “Stone Scripture,” Directed by Dondrup Dorje (Tibetan film student)
Response and discussion with 2 Toronto documentary filmmakers
2:00-3:00
Film: “TBA,” Directed by Otto Wendekar (Tibetan film student)
Response and discussion with 2 Toronto documentary filmmakers
3-3:15 Break
3:15-4:30 “Tantric Yogi”
Film: “Tantric Yogi,” Directed by Dorje Tsering Chenaktsang (50 mins)
Response and discussion with 2 Toronto documentary filmmakers
Dorje Tsering Chenaktsang (aka Jangbu) is considered by many Tibet’s greatest living poet. Born in Qinghai province, China, he worked for many years as editor of the Tibetan language literary journal Bod kyi rtsom rig sgyu rtsal [Tibetan art and literature] in Lhasa. In recent years he has been a Visiting Professor of Tibetan Language at the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO) in Paris. He has directed the documentaries Tantric Yogi, and Ani Lacham: A Tibetan Nun. He is currently working on a series of documentaries that reflect on social and cultural issues in modern Tibet. The first English translation of his poems and short stories, an anthology of his works titled The Nine-Eyed Agathe, will be soon published in the United States. In Tibetan with English subtitles, Tantric Yogi follows a Yogi and his fellow villagers as they travel through challenging territory to reach a rare gathering of thousands of lay tantric practitioners in Eastern Tibet. Narrated by Jim Broadbent.
4:30-6:00 “Summer Pasture”
Film: “Summer Pasture” Directed by Tsering Perlo, Lynn True and Nelson Walker
Response and discussion with 2 Toronto documentary filmmakers
Tsering Perlo founded Rabsal, a local Tibetan NGO that engages Tibetans in filmmaking to preserve and regenerate Tibetan culture and customs. He lives in Dzachukha (Shiqu) County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and graduated from the Sichuan Province Tibetan School (SPTI). Perlo has worked with numerous organizations, including the Tibet Fund, The Bridge Fund and the Tibetan & Himalayan Library at the University of Virginia. Perlo is the first recipient of the Machik Fellowship, a program designed to support dynamic Tibetan change-makers working to strengthen their communities and environments. Summer Pasture, his first film, is a feature-length documentary that chronicles one summer with a young family amidst this period of great uncertainty. Locho, his wife Yama, and their infant daughter, nicknamed Jiatomah (“pale chubby girl”), spend the summer months in eastern Tibet’s Zachukha grasslands, an area known as Wu-Zui or “5-Most,” the highest, coldest, poorest, largest, and most remote county in Sichuan Province, China. Summer Pasture takes place at a critical time in Locho and Yama’s lives, as they question their future as nomads. With their pastoral traditions confronting rapid modernization, Locho and Yama must reconcile the challenges that threaten to drastically reshape their existence.
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