Filmmakers of the multi-award winning documentary “The Sun Behind the Clouds – Tibet’s Struggle for Freedom” have given the film’s exclusive distribution rights for the South Asia region to the pro-independence Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) to help raise fund for the organisation.
By Phurbu Thinley
Dharamsala, Novebmer 11: The filmmakers of the multi-award winning documentary “The Sun Behind the Cloud – Tibet’s Struggle for Freedom”, Wednesday announced the launch of the Tibetan version of the film.
The filmmakers Tenzing Sonam and his Indian wife Ritu Sarin also said they have given the right to the Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC), the largest pro-independence Tibetan organisaion, to be the exclusive distributor of the film for the south Asia region. As part of the move, the filmmakers also donated 2500 copies of its original English version to the organistion.
At the press conference here this morning at the TYC’s head office, the duo filmmakers said the move was a simple gesture of their support for the organistion’s work towards Tibetan cause.
“TYC is an important organisation in the Tibetan people’s freedom struggle, and by giving them this exclusive distribution right we want to show our support in the organistion’s work by helping them raise some fund out of it,” Sonam said.
Addressing the press conference, Sonam, however, also expressed strong regret over the widespread piracy problems and its detrimental effects facing the Tibetan artists and filmmakers.
By refraining from piracy acts within the Tibetan community, Sonam said, it can do great service in creating a viable environment for the growth of Tibetan art and film works.
Sonam said the film will also be released in other languages, including Chinese.
“The Sun Behind the Clouds” made headlines when it was first selected to compete at the “21st Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival” in USA, where where the Chinese authorities tried to browbeat the organizers, pressurizing them to cancel the screening, however, the festival refused to buckle.
Over the months the film was selected to be screened in a number of other prominent film festivals around the world and won many awards, including the Vaclav Havel Award at the One World Film Festival in Prague. It was also screened at many theatres around the world and received many rave reviews in various international magazines.
While welcoming the gestures from the filmmakers, TYC president Tsewang Rigzin, who was recently re-elected for the second consecutive term to lead the organisation, said the Tibetan version of the film will soon be made available for sale through its regional chapters.
“We would like to thank Tenzing Sonam and Ritu Sarin for giving us the distribution rights for this film and allowing us to publicize the cause of Tibet, and in the process help TYC raise fund,” Rigzin said.
According to Rigzin, the film has comprehensively documented the last 50 years of Tibetan struggle, including the 2008 demonstrations, which he said was “by far the most widespread and and longest demonstrations” against Chinese rule by Tibetan people since the 1959 uprising and demonstrations in late 80s.
He said the film would effectively act as a testimony of the course of the Tibetan freedom struggle to “inspire the younger and future generations of Tibetan people to learn from the sacrifices made by Tibetan people” over the years.
With unusual intimate access, the filmmakers find a unique perspective on the Dalai Lama’s trials and tribulations and follow him over an eventful year, including the 2008 protests in Tibet, the long march in India, the Beijing Olympics and the breakdown of talks with China.
Set against this backdrop, the film explores the interplay between the personal and the historic, spirituality and politics, and the tension between the Dalai Lama’s efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Tibet situation based on compromise and dialogue, and the impatience of a younger generation of Tibetans who are ready to take a more confrontational course.
Although Rigzin said his organisation was “proud to be associated” as a distributor of the film, he, however, added that “some of the views and sentiments of some of the individuals in the film do not reflect the views and position of TYC”.
Rigzin also urged members in the Tibetan community and others not to distribute the film without the organisation’s consent. As an exclusive distributor for the South Asia region, Rigzin said the copies of the film will also bear TYC logo on them.
