2013

Beyond the Numbers: A Human Perspective on Tibet’s Self-immolation

Details
India/Canada
2012
DVD
4:3
26min.
English
czech subtitles

Tibetans have been engaged in a protracted non-violent struggle for freedom since China’s occupation of the region in 1949. On February 27 2009, their protests took on a new shape when a young monk lit himself on fire. Since then, more than 90 Tibetans from all walks of life have burned themselves in protest against cultural and religious repression. But beyond the numbers, Tibet’s self-immolators were also people - someone’s daughter, nephew, cousin. Through some of their friends and relatives, they are remembered and their extreme actions contextualized.

The Burning Question: Why are Tibetans Turning to Self-immolation?

Details
Indie
2012
DVD
4:3
30min.
anglicky
české titulky

More than 150 Tibetans in Tibet have set themselves in fire since 2009 demanding freedom and the return of the Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama from exile. The Burning Question: Why are Tibetans Turning to Self-immolation? depicts the background and the underlying causes of the self-immolations.

From Nomad to Nobody

Details
Canada
2011
DVD
16:9
15min
English
czech subtitles

Motivated by previous travels to Tibet, the narrator sets off on a personal quest, focusing on the fast-disappearing Tibetan nomad culture. Why are the nomads being forcibly relocated by Chinese officials? Why are they are being shifted off their traditional grazing lands into concrete ghettos? In these settlement camps, nomads are marginalised and have little chance of making a decent living, or finding a new profession. Previously, when grazing yaks, they were self-sufficient and lived in an entirely sustainable way.

Dolpo Tulku: Return to the Himalayas

Details
Germany
2010
DVD
4:3
101min.
Tibetan and English
english and czech subtitles

The Tibetan-speaking Dolpo in northwestern Nepal is one of the most isolated regions in the world. Surrounded by the enormous Himalayas, the people of Dolpo live to a large extent without electricity and modern communication and without the pressures of assimilation felt in China or India. The Dolpo, far removed from the Nepalese government, is a place where Buddhist culture
still thrives.

Sunrise/Sunset: Dalai Lama XIV

Details
Russia
2008
DVD
16:9
72min.
Russian
English and Czech subtitles

Twenty four hours in the residence of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, from the beginning of his day which starts, at 3 am till dusk when he goes to bed. During that cumulative day, the Dalai Lama carried out his morning fitness training, his walk along the residential alleys, his prayers and meditations. These are followed by audiences, press-conferences and giving blessings to pilgrims. On the same day the Dalai Lama gave his teachings to the Buddhists from Russia and Mongolia.

Drapchi

Details
Indie
2012
DVD
90min.
Tibetan and English
english and czech subtitles

Starring Namgyal Lhamo

Set in the political hotbed that is modern Tibet where the present wreaks systematic war over the traditional past and an uncertain future awaits all those who raise their voice in protest, Drapchi is the story of Yiga Gyalnang (Namgyal Lhamo) a traditional Tibetan Opera singer who is abducted one summer morning and finds herself in near complete isolation in an underground/secret prison cell.