A short film festival will open a window on Tibet this weekend.
The first of six films about Tibet will unspool tonight at 7 p.m., to start Focus on Tibet, a two-day festival organized by the Canada Tibet Committee.
In A Moment in Time (1996), Alaskan nature filmmaker William Bacon journeys into the remote Namche Barwa Gorge in Eastern Tibet. The film also explores Chinese developments in Lhasa.
Bacon’s 54-minute film will be followed by Cry of the Snow Lion, Tom Peosay’s award-winning 2003 documentary journey through Tibet, India and Nepal — from monastic rituals to Lhasa brothels and slums. Blending stunning footage of the “roof of the world” and personal stories, it explores the Tibetan predicament.
Saturday’s program, also starting at 7 p.m., begins with Strange Spirit, a 40-minute documentary about the struggle of the Tibetan people; and A Stranger in my Native Land (1998), the story of Tenzing Sonam, a Tibetan exile who was born and raised in India.
It also includes the Victoria premiere of Escape Over the Himalayas: Tibet’s Children on their Journey Into Exile (2000), Maria Blumencron’s film about Tibetan parents who send their children on a dangerous trek across the Himalayas to Nepal to be educated by the Tibetan community in exile; and The Reincarnation of Khensur Rinpoche (1999), about a monk in a Tibetan monastery in Indiar.
Admission to Focus on Tibet is by donation. Call 380-1325 for information.
