by Kalsang Tsering
Napoli, Italy – Three Tibetan filmmakers participated in the 4 film festival, which is currently underway in Bolzano, Italy. Tsering Rithar, Kalsang Tsering and Kalsang Rinchen were invited to screen their films at the festival being held at Eurac research center in Bolzano. The 3 Tibetans also took part in round table session moderated by Gunnter Gologna, president of Italian Tibet society.
Karma, a feature film, and Spirit does not Come Anymore, a documentary directed by Tsering Rithar, Joy of Living a documentary film by Kalsang Tsering and Phantoms of Chittagong a documentary film by Kalsang Rinchen were received by the audience with applause. The Silent Holy Stones and Grassland, directed by Pema Tsetan from Tibet also were screened at the festival.
The filmmakers are currently in Napoli for ‘Ciak Sul Cinema Tibetano’ a film festival organized by university of Napoli’s Oriental studies department with Stella Film and Modernissimo theatre. A conference on Tibetan cinema was also organized alongside the screenings of the films. Dorji Tsering aso known as Jangbu who wrote Tibetan films like “Prince of Himalaya” talked about Tibetan documentary films in Tibet. Robert Barnett of Columbia University spoke on History of Tibetan Cinema in Tibet, and Francoise Robin of INALCO spoke on “Compassion as the Counter-Hegemonic Discourse in Tibetan Cinema”. Tsering Rhitar Sherpa spoke on “The Theme of Search or Searching in the Current Tibetan Cinema In Exile.” Kalsang Rinchen and Kalsang Tsering spoke on documentary films and Tibetan feature films in diasporic Tibetan communities.
Tibetan films Dreaming Lhasa, Karma, Joy of Living, We Are No Monks, We Homes Chaps, and others are being screened in Bolzano, Napoli and Rome between 21 and 26 October, 2008.
The filmmakers will also attend a 3-day seminar on Tibetan cinema in Rome beginning today. The Tibetan filmmakers are in Italy on the invitation of ASIA ONLUS, an Italian NGO based in Rome, with funding from the Italian Ministry of Finance.
While in Rome, the three Tibetan filmmakers also had an informal interaction with the Oscar winning filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci, who directed films like “The Last Emperor “and “The Little Buddha”.
