TIBET IN HARLEM

Shadow Circus: The CIA in Tibet
Dir. Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam, 2000, 49 min.
The Tibetan people are well known for being devoutly religious and peace loving. What is less known is that thousands of Tibetans took up arms against the invading forces of Communist China and waged a bitter and bloody guerrilla war. From the mid-1950s until 1969 they were aided in their efforts by an unlikely ally, the CIA. This project, code-named ST CIRCUS, was one of the CIA's longest running covert operations. The withdrawal of the CIA's support in 1969 was as abrupt as its initial involvement was unexpected: the Tibetans had simply fitted into America's larger policy of destabilising or overthrowing Communist regimes, and when that no longer applied, they were abandoned. With unique archive footage and exclusive interviews with former resistance fighters and surviving CIA operatives, The Shadow Circus: The CIA in Tibet reveals for the first time this hitherto unknown chapter in Tibet's recent history - a tale that is both heroic and tragic, full of sad ironies and unexpected twists that overturn all preconceptions about both Tibet and the CIA.

Raid Into Tibet
Dir. Adrian Cowell, 1964 Courtesy of the Tibet Film Archive
The only available film of the Tibetan guerilla fighters who carried on their resistance efforts in Tibet from the remote Mustang area of Nepal from 1960 to 1974. George Patterson, author and Tibetan expert, takes the viewer to the secret guerilla camps and accompanies the men on a mission to raid a Chinese military truck convoy.

Followed by panel discussion with Ken Knaus, Chief of the Tibetan Task Force for the CIA, 1961-1965 and author of Orphans of the Cold War. Reception with Tibetan refreshments to follow.

TIBET IN HARLEM

Leaving Fear Behind
Dir. Dhondup Wangchen and Golog Jigme, 2008, 25 min.
Leaving Fear Behind (in Tibetan, Jigdrel) is a heroic film shot by Tibetans from inside Tibet, who longed to bring Tibetan voices to the Beijing Olympic Games. With the global spotlight on China as it rises to host the XXIX Olympics, Tibetans wish to tell the world of their plight and their heartfelt grievances against Chinese rule. The footage was smuggled out of Tibet under extraordinary circumstances. The filmmakers were detained soon after sending their tapes out, and remain in detention today.

Distorted Propaganda
Dir. Jeff Lodas, 2007, 62 min.
Through the window of Chinese propaganda in Tibet, this film looks at topics such as education, entertainment, urban development, religion, political anniversary celebration, and the peaceful liberation of Tibet.
Propaganda is ubiquitous in China. Because of Tibet's political situation, many facets of life have a political tone. Education, from primary school through university, always includes political education, which seeks to produce loyalty to the Communist Party, and ferret out those who would dissent. Through popular entertainment, Tibetans may find themselves, willingly or unwillingly, singing songs of praise to the Party and Chairman Mao. Urbanization and economic development are the great acheivements held high by the Party. Who really benefits from it? Who really pays for it? Being Buddhist is synonymous with being Tibetan, and is one of the clearest expressions of national identity. Yet, loyalty to the Communist Party must come before everything, and religion is no exception. 2001 marked 50 years since the arrival of the Peoples' Liberation Army on the Tibetan Plateau. A parade and celebration of this "peaceful liberation" was carefully orchestrated in Lhasa, amid high security.
Five interviews reveal what it is like to grow up, live and work with propaganda in daily life. Three anonymous Tibetans discuss their experiences with education, media, and popular music. Interviewed on camera are Chopata Mache, a composer, and Agya Rinpoche, former Abbot of Kumbum Monastery in Amdo and VP of the Chinese Buddhist Association.

Panel Discussion and Reception to follow. Director Jeff Lodas will be present for Q&A

Leaving Fear Behind

Distorted Propaganda

TIBET IN HARLEM
Co-Presented by Asia Society

The Forbidden Team
Dir. Arnold Krøgaard and Rasmus Dinesen, 2008, 54 min.
Made by Danish filmmakers Rasmus Dinesen and Arnold Krøjgaard, this documentary relates the heart-warming story of the first ever international football match played by the Tibetan national football team, made up of exiled Tibetans. The film follows the story from the trials for the Tibetan team, right through to the friendly match played against the Greenlandic national side which took place in Denmark. The match caused much controversy, with both FIFA and the Chinese Government attempting to prevent it from taking place, but the match nevertheless took place in a show of dedication to the beautiful game as well as to the nation of Tibet.

Beauty and the Beast: A Search for Miss Tibet
Dir. Tenzin Tsetan Choklay, 2006, 13 min.
A short film about the first Miss Tibet in Exile beauty pageant.

Miss Tibet in Exile
Dir. Tashi Wangchuk and Tsultrim Dorjee, 2008, 41 min.
Miss Tibet in Exile is a documentary film about the making of Miss Tibet beauty pageant in India and the winning girl's subsequent participation in the Miss Earth beauty pageant in the Philippines. The film portrays various behind the scene activities of the pageant's organizer Lobsang Wangyal and it also features several notable Tibetan personalities expressing their views on the beauty pageant.

Director Tashi Wangchuk and Lobsang Wangyal will be available for Q&A via Skype.

TIBET IN HARLEM
Co-Presented by The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation

Tibetan Story
Christian Aid,1965, 25 min. Courtesy of the Tibet Film Archive
The 1965 film examines the problem and needs of the Tibetan people in exile and the assistance provided by Church organizations for their resettlement in a new environment. The film offers a wide selection of scenes from Tibetan settlements in India , with special emphasis on the educational needs of the children, health problems of the refugees, the maintenance of Tibet culture and the future of the Tibetan people. Office of Tibet.

Tashi Writes a Letter
CARE, 1964, 25 min. Courtesy of the Tibet Film Archive
An intimate look at early Tibetan exile life in Darjeeling India. The film portrays the young Kambu family as they journey into exile. The Kambus' live in a community of 60 exile Tibetan families who fashion living quarters by separating sections between the trestles that run under a major road in the city. The family is introduced to the Tibetan Refugee Self Help Center at Hillside. Caretaker Nancy Thondup, wife to the older brother of His Holiness the Dalai Lama introduces work, health, and care into the lives of the Kambu family. The film features early footage of wool production, carpet making, wood cutting, and educating both in academic and cultural values within a Tibetan ideological framework.

Stranger In My Native Land
Dir. Ritu Sarin and Tezing Sonam, 1998, 33 min.
A Stranger in my Native Land is the poignant and personal account of Tenzing Sonam's first-ever visit to his homeland. From the far reaches of Amdo Province, where Tibetans have lost their language, to Lhasa, the heart of the country, the film captures his meetings with long-lost relatives and conveys a sense of the desperation of Tibet as a country under occupation.

Panel discussion and Poetry reading by Tenzing Rigdol to follow.

TIBET IN HARLEM
Co-Presented by Asian Cinevision

Religious Investiture of His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Office of Tibet, 1970, 20 min. Courtesy of the Tibet Film Archive
A colorful documentary record of sequences from the rigorous oral examinations required of the Dalai Lama to achieve his Geshe Lharampa degree (highest order of Doctor of Divinity degree). Some of the footage was filmed in 1958, and the balance in February 1959, only weeks before the Tibetan Uprising and the flight of the Dalai Lama to India . Informative and interesting scenes of the Potala Palace, Lhasa city and surrounding areas, Tsuglagkhang (the Central Cathedral), Ganden monastery (now destroyed), monks, government officials and ceremonial dancers from the original 8 mm. films.

TIBET IN HARLEM
Co-Presented by Machik

Kekexili (Mountain Patrol)
Dir. Chuan Lu, 2004, 90 min. Courtesy of Through an Exile Lens
Kekexili (Mountain Patrol) is a film inspired by a people's remarkable mission surrounding the illegal Tibetan antelope poaching in the region of Kekexili, the largest animal reserve in China. The story is brought to the screen with great detail by director Lu Chuan. Set against the exquisite backdrop of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, Chuan tells the tale of brave local Tibetans who face death and starvation to save the endangered antelope herds from a band of ruthless hunters.

TIBET IN HARLEM

Children's Program
90 min.
A selection of classic cartoons in Tibetan.

TIBET IN HARLEM

The Reincarnation of Khensur Rinpoche
Dir. Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam, 1991, 50 min.
Choenzey is a 47-year-old monk living in a Tibetan refugee monastery in South India. His spiritual master, Khensur Rinpoche, a revered high lama, has been dead for four years. According to Tibetan belief, he will soon be reincarnated. It is Choenzey's responsibility, as his closest disciple, to find the reincarnation and to look after him. The film follows Choenzey's search and his eventual discovery of an impish but gentle 4-year-old boy who is recognized by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan State Oracle to be the reincarnation. Without sentimentality, the film captures the moving relationship that develops between the erstwhile disciple and his young master.

Thread of Karma
Dir. Ritu Sarin and Tezning Sonam, 2007, 50 min.
Sixteen years later, the directors revisit the reincarnation of Khensur Rinpoche at Drepung Monastery in South India, where he has been brought up within the age-old traditions of Tibetan Buddhist monastic life. He is now 20 years old, and his devoted attendant, Choenzey, continues to take care of him. His spiritual teacher is Geshe Wangchen, one of the most respected masters in the monastery, who was himself a disciple of Khensur Rinpoche.
   Thread of Karma offers an intimate look at the life of the young lama as he aspires to live up to the reputation of his former incarnation. It also explores his moving relationship with the two people closest to him, his attendant and his spiritual master, both of whom were connected to him in his previous life. By focusing on these ties that cut across lifetimes, the film paints a touching and insightful portrait of the Rinpoche even as it demystifies the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of reincarnation.

Reception Tibetan refreshments and special musical performance by Phurbu Lhamo to follow.

TIBET IN HARLEM 2: Origins
March 14–20, 2010
Columbia University TIbet in Harlem 2 website>

Tibet in Harlem 2: Origins is the second annual series of Tibetan and Tibet-related films at the Maysles Cinema in Harlem. This year's program showcases a collection of rarely screened early films – both documentary and fiction – by some of the most important Tibetan and Chinese filmmakers working in Tibet today.

Suggested Admission to all events: $12. Online tickets include an additional $1 service charge. Proceeds from each event will be contributed to NGOs and organizations working inside Tibet, including Rabsal, the Tibet Village Project and Machik.

TIBET IN HARLEM 2: Origins
Series page>

Prince of the Himalayas
Dir. Sherwood Hu, 2006, 108 min., Director's first feature on Tibet.
Tibetan with English subtitles.
Setting Hamlet in a completely new context in early Tibetan history, Prince of the Himalayas is a visually ravishing historical epic that is richly suggestive of the enduring relevance of Shakespeare's tragedy for the modern world and the most successful example so far of artistic cooperation between a Chinese director and Tibetan writers (Dorje Tsering Chenaktshang and Tashi Dawa).

Opening night reception to follow screening, sponsored by Harlem's own Sugar Hill Ale!

TIBET IN HARLEM 2: Origins
Series page>

16 Barkor South Street
Dir. Duan Jinchuan, 1996, 100 min.
Tibetan and Chinese with English subtitles.
No.16, Barkor Street is an old courtyard in the heart of Lhasa and the site of the office of the Barkor Neighborhood Committee. This masterful cinema verité documentary, the landmark work in the history of independent documentaries about Tibet, is a photographic study of the basic workings of government in Tibet that follows the local Party Secretary, Deputy Director, Director for Women's Affairs, and Community Policeman, among others, as they implement official policies and manage neighborhood affairs.

TIBET IN HARLEM 2: Origins
Series website>

Tantric Yogi
Dir. Dorje Tsering Chenaktsang 2005, 50 min., Director's first documentary.
Tibetan with English subtitles.
This documentary follows a Yogi and his fellow villagers as they travel through challenging territory to reach a rare gathering of thousands of lay tantric practitioners in Eastern Tibet. Narrated by Jim Broadbent.

Ani Lhacham
Dir. Dorje Tsering Chenaktshang, 2007, 27 min.
Tibetan with English subtitles.
When she was a child, Lhacham was eager to learn how to read and write. For economic reasons, her parents thought otherwise. She decided to run away to a nunnery in order to receive the education she was dreaming of. Dorje Tsering Chenaktsang follows her during a trip to the nearby town to get her tape recorder fixed. This recorder is her knowledge tool which she uses to learn Tibetan. The film is a tender and poetic portrait of Lhacham's first journey into town.

TIBET IN HARLEM 2: Origins
Series page>

The Silent Holy Stones
Dir. Padma Tseten, 2005, 102 min., Director's first feature.
Tibetan with English subtitles.
The debut feature from the preeminent Tibetan filmmaker working today. The Silent Holy Stones is a restrained, unhurried story of a 10-year old Tibetan monk who has the chance to spend a few days at New Year with his family in their village a day's horse-ride away. The boy's journey to his village and back to the monastery bring to light the intertwined forces of westernization and consumerism that are a powerful presence even in a small Tibetan farming community.

Introduced by Kevin Lee of dGenerate Films and followed by Q&A with filmmaker Padma Tseten.

Co-presented by dGenerate Films.

TIBET IN HARLEM 2: Origins
Series page>

Milarepa
Dir. Sonam, 2006, 95 min., Director's first film.
Tibetan with English subtitles.
A delightfully personal rendering of the story of Tibet's best known and most respected yogi-poet, Milarepa, made by a self-taught director who wrote, lit, set and edited the entire film himself, using amateur actors in a remote Tibetan village. As a young man, Milarepa uses sorcery to murder his aunt and uncle who have stolen his family's fortune. Later he regrets his actions and seeks out a famous lama, who submits his student to years of hardship before complete understanding can be achieved.

TIBET IN HARLEM 2: Origins
Series page>

The Grassland
Dir. Padma Tseten, 2004, 22 min. Director's first film.
Tibetan with English subtitles.
When an elderly woman's yak goes missing, her husband is sure he knows who the culprits are, but the woman is more concerned about avoiding further suffering for the suspects. A careful and moving study of different views of resolving conflict in a nomadic community.

The Girl Lhari
Dir. Rigdan Gyatso 2005, 25 min. Director's first work.
Tibetan with English subtitles.
Lhari is a young bride sent to a country village to live with her in-laws, who increasingly use her as a servant and even lock her out at night, with her husband not daring to intervene. Lhari decides to find her own, quintessentially Tibetan solution to her situation.

Followed by panel discussion with both filmmakers, Padma Tseten and Rigdan Gyatso, and a reception.

TIBET IN HARLEM 2: Origins
Series page>

Q&A with filmmaker and closing night reception to follow, sponsored by Harlem's own Sugar Hill Ale!