By Tendar Tsering
DHARAMSHALA, October 30: The two-day Tibet Film Festival held in the exile seat of Dharamshala ended today with honours going out to some of the budding film makers in the Tibetan exile community.
The third edition of the Tibet Film Festival, an annual event dedicated to Dhondup Wangchen, who is serving a six-year jail term for his groundbreaking documentary “Leaving Fear Behind”, was held simultaneously in two cities, Dharamshala and Zurich from October 28 – 30, 2011.
“The film festival is dedicated to the jailed Tibetan film maker Dhondup Wangchen because we believe he is one of the rare film makers who risked his life to bring out the real situation inside Tibet through the medium of documentary film,” said Nyima Dhondup from Switzerland, one of the organisers of the Festival.
“We hope, the world will remember Dhondup Wangchen with this annual Tibet film festival,” added Dhondup.
A short film competition on the theme – ‘mother’ – was the highlight of the festival that saw nine short films made by Tibetans living in United States, Switzerland, Australia and India competing for top 3 positions.
Geleck Palsang, a Tibetan filmmaker from India, known for his acclaimed documentary ‘Prayers Answered’, took away the Jury Award for best short film and also the Audience Choice Award. The Jury has chosen two amateur film makers – Tenzin Delek from Dharamsala and Lobsang Thinley from United States – for the second place with no third position.
Geleck Palsang said he would like to see more and more Tibetans, especially youngsters explore the magic of film as a medium of expression. “I took part in this small but very important competition mainly to encourage more youngsters to participate in the future,” he said.
The jury described Geleck’s entry “Las – sMon” as a film of a special kind, both impressive and fascinating. “Time and space are expertly pushed into the background. As viewers, we succumb to the visuals and are drawn onto the rhythm of the film. The film is convincing on both a visual as well as on a dramatic level,” commented the jury.
Tenzin Delek acknowledged his teacher Kalsang Rinchen, who had organized a month’s class on digital filmmaking for Tibetans in Dharamshala. He said he aspires to use cinema as a platform to express his ideas. He dreams of making films that would reach out to wider audience. “I haven’t done any film course, I only attended Kalsang Rinchen’s one month free film class in Dharamshala,” Delek said.
“This recognition gives me inspiration to dig more the art of cinema as a means to enhance the Tibetan freedom struggle”, added Delek.
The organisers say the response from the local Tibetan community to the third Tibet film festival was very positive. “We did not expect this to happen, we are so happy and we hope we can continue to hold the festival here every year”.
“We chose Dharamshala as the venue for the film festival because Dharamshala is like our little Lhasa,” said Dhondup.
The Tibet Film Festival in Dharamshala was organised by the Filming for Tibet in collaboration with Students for Free Tibet, India.
The festival concluded with the screening of an award winning film ‘The Sun Beaten Path’, directed by Sonthar Gyal from Tibet, to a packed audience.
