Reawakening (Bhutanese Short Film)

A troubled man carefully and deliberately performs his last prayers at the altar, planning to later end his miseries by taking his own life. Determined to escape his pain, can anything stop him now?

Drang Gollay

The setting is magical and mysterious. It’s like a classic novel coming alive on the silver screen. The storyline is fresh, appealing and thrilling, keeping one on edge but glued to the seat.

While Drang Gollay is the name of the villain, the film is a saga. It’s of a heroic deed, interwoven with that of love and unselfish devotion. It is about conquering hatred, revenge and the thirst for power, that blinds a man. Drang Gollay (Nidup Dorji) is a general, who serves under the Paro penlop Wangchen Drakpa (Pem Taze).

The scene opens in the present day, when Kuenphen (Sonam Tenzin – Sergyel), a researcher, working at an archaeological ruin in Paro, meets Yiwong (debutante Sonam Wangmo), a doctor working with the team.

A mysterious force and a repeated dream bind the two protagonists. The dream is related to the ruins and haunts them. They discover an ancient scroll buried within the ruins, and the plot thickens, as a series of flashback give the mysterious dreams a touch of reality, breaking down the barriers of the force that brought them together.

Their journey is tireless, but their love unwavering and unbreakable. There are not many music videos that usually disrupt the flow of the film, although some scenes seem disconnected. The few that are there merge gracefully and provide a break from the thrill that emerges from not knowing what will come next.

Accompanied by a fresh story line, and commendable acting skills and cinematography, Drang Gollay is an entertaining film, and not many may notice that it is 2 hours 43 minutes long.

The film is directed by Kinley Tshering Dorji and Sonam Phuntsho. The movie has been screening at City Cinema hall in Thimphu since August 1.

Source: Kuenselonline

Beskop Tshechu 2011 - A festival of short films

Beskop Tshechu, the first documentary and short film festival in Bhutan, begins today at the Royal Thai Pavilion in Thimphu at 6:00 pm.

The film festival will screen short films and documentaries made by Bhutanese as well as some foreign films.

According to the organizing committee, the festival is aimed at promoting and encouraging creative filmmaking in the country. To commemorate the historic royal wedding,  the films will be screened free.

There are seven entries in the short film category while five documentary are by high school students.

The three-day film festival will also have non-competitive screenings from around the world to share a range of artistic films with Bhutanese viewers.

There will also be a “Bhutan Special” category, out of competition, which will highlight films made in the past by Bhutanese, including the international award-winning Yonten Gi Kawa by Ugyen Wangdi.

Films in competition will be viewed by a jury panel, which comprise both local and foreign members, and the event will conclude with an award ceremony at the clock tower, where winning filmmakers will recieve cash awards.

There will also be several other filmmaking or arts-related programme like master classes by foreign professionals, and music and drama activities.

Dechen Roder, one of the organizers, said that since this is the first time, the organisers are both excited and anxious. “We really hope this event to contribute something great to our film industry,” she said, adding that the festival is also in honour and homage to His Majesty the King for his committed support and interest in the films and art.

Beskop Tshechu 2011 is financed by Department of Information and Media under Ministry of Information and Communications.

Source: Bhutan Observer

Sing-Lem (REVIEW)

Another film by Tshering Wangyel is showing to a packed Trowa Theatre at Changjiji in Thimphu. Romantically named Sing-Lem, the film is loosely based on the fabled love story of Gasa Lami Singye and Changyul Bum Galem. In the original story that takes place in the mediaeval Bhutan, Singye, the attendant of the Lama of Gasa Dzong, falls in love with the beauty of Changyul, a village in Punakha. But before their love blossoms into a happy marriage, tragedy strikes. And their love is harshly snuffed out.

The film extends the tragic ending of Gasa Lami Singye and retells the story with a happy ending. Unlike in the original story, the lovers in the film meet a tragic end only to be reborn to meet again. The story line is also reminiscent of another popular Bhutanese love story, Mitshe Sumgi Drok (Lovers of three lifetimes).

The plot is divided into two parts. The first half draws many parallels to the original Gasa Lami Singye story. In the second half, however, the plot deviates significantly from the original. Nevertheless, the director has achieved a seamless continuity of the two parts.

In addition, the film deploys some impressive special effects. A nightmare scene, which depicts a disfigured character with revolving head and heavily scarred face, is reminiscent of the Hollywood classic, The Exorcist. In terms of overall quality, the special effects are much like that of Bollywood films from the past, which is impressive considering that the director could have worked with a significantly lower budget.

There is something different about the background music in the film. The bits of orchestra music amid the usual Dzongkha songs provide a theatrical experience that has been rare among Bhutanese films.

However, the transitions between scenes are abrupt, and the melodrama is a little overdone. The use of a grenade in the closing scene and certain bloody scenes look exaggerated.

Although the dialogues are generally witty, at times, the actors seem to read from the screenplay rather than speak them out in a conversational tone. However, the lead actors are convincing. Tandin Bidha and Tandin Sonam both carry the audience with them. Audiences react with sighs of relief when they narrowly escape death and fall silent when they die. The supporting characters are also generally effective, particularly in humorous parts of the film.

The widely known comedian, Phurba Thinley, stands out, this time for the more serious role he plays. Although the audience easily laughs at the mere glimpses of his face, his role in the film is refreshingly clean of his usual slapstick and earthy humour.

According to a ticket seller, Trowa Theatre has been fully packed for nine consecutive days since the film premiered. And understandably so. The film has employed the basic formula for success in the Bhutanese market – the usual dose of Phurba Thinley humour and several Bollywood-style dance scenes.

Source: Bhutan Observer

The Beggar, a short film by Jigme Lhendup

A businessman tries to change the life of a beggar, but sometimes old habits are hard to break.
IAFT non-dialogue project. www.filmschool.ph

Samzang (Review)

Samzang, the latest film screening at Lugar Theatre in Thimphu, brings to Bhutanese cinema goers a new story line and some promising new faces.

The film tells the story of Samzang, the male protagonist played by debut actor Sonam Thinley, who is caught up in the murder of his wife. He runs away from the police, who suspect him of the murder. Although he has witnessed the murder, he is too dazed to recollect the face of the murderer. With the police in hot pursuit, Samzang flees like a guilt-stricken fugitive. All the while, he is in pursuit of the murderer. But he only has a piece of cloth as evidence to help him.

Meanwhile, Samzang comes across Sangay, a single mother bringing up her four-year-old daughter. Her life portrays a typical single Bhutanese woman bringing up her child with lavish love and tenderness amid punishing routines of domestic chores like tending cattle and fields. Sangay, who is played by Rigzin Choden, one of the producers of the film, provides Samzang a haven at her home from the unrelenting police.

The film reaches its climax when Samzang manages to track down the murderer. And like many Bhutanese films, Samzang has a happy ending that leaves viewers happy, but not perturbed or thinking.

Ugyen Pema, one of the contestants of Miss Bhutan 2010, also a newcomer, plays Samzang’s wife. Sonam Thinley and Ugyen Pema have made a good debut.

Besides Rigzin Choden, the film boasts senior actors like Kesang Tobden and Ulap Lekey.

Director-writer Tshering Penjore could have strengthened the story by putting Sangay’s life in a bigger context. Sangay is a character too strong for the context she is put in.

The story flow is at times disrupted by some hanging scenes. And some dialogues become repetitive.

Samzang delivers an imaginative dialogue that immediately captures the attention of viewers. “In the ancient times, humans were born with two heads, four hands and four legs. They became so powerful that the gods cut the humans into half. That’s why, today people are born with one head, two hands and two legs. And that’s why, right after their birth, they look for their other half. Their life is complete only after they find their other half.” Samzang repeats the dialogue once.

The two-hour long film has English subtitles and four songs. The film has been shot in beautiful locations of Thimphu and Bumthang. And it has managed to capture the beauty of Bhutanese landscape.

Most music for the songs have been mixed and produced in Mumbai, India.

Samzang is produced by Benchen Kenpo and Rigzin Choden

From: Bhutan Observer

Kabkab su

Kabkab Su, the latest film screening at Lugar Theatre in Thimphu, reminds the Bhutanese audience of one of Bhutan’s favourite love stories, that of Mitshe Sumgi Drog in which two true, but ill-fated lovers – Alu Penjo and Gensa Lham – live three lifetimes together to find a fulfilling union. It attempts to retell an old story in a modern setting, but it just about manages to become the usual kind of a chick flick that appeals to the average Bhutanese movie-goer.

The film lucidly brings out some common hindrances to flowering of love like wealth and social status. It portrays some common Bhutanese cultural practices around which the institution of marriage revolves.

Kabkab Su opens in a remote Bhutanese village where a man promises his younger sister’s hand in marriage to a relative without the sister’s knowledge. Meantime, a secret love has already blossomed between the sister, Wangmo (played by Tandin Bidha), and a village boy called Tashi (played by Chencho Dorji). Wangmo is the sister of the rich man of the village and Tashi is a poor orphan.

When Wangmo comes to know about the matrimonial arrangement her brother has made for her, she and her lover plan to escape from the village and the forced marriage.

The man of the brother’s choice for Wangmo discovers the clandestine plan and immediately springs into action. On their way of the village, the man waylays and kills both Wangmo and Tashi harshly putting an abrupt end to their love life.

But they are not to be separated. They are bound by the string of fate, and they meet lifetime after lifetime to continue their love.

Just as the love of Wangmo and Tashi, the flow of the story in the film occasionally stumbles and interrupts the otherwise captivating story. Characterization could have been stronger and less confusing.

Within a few months of their death, Wangmo and Tashi are reborn, Wangmo as her brother’s daughter and Tashi as a rich man’s son. And this lifetime, they stand a better chance for a more fulfilling union.

Wangmo and Tashi, who are now reborn as Rinzin and Deki, are haunted by intermittent bitter-sweet dreams about each other’s love and death in the previous life.

When they meet at the Royal Thimphu College as students, similar dreams they share with each other bring Rinzin and Deki together. However, once again their love for each other is up against a series of odds.

Like all Bhutanese films, Kabkab Su is punctuated by song sequences. The two-hour film has eight songs.

Written and directed by Tshering Nidup, the movie has been made at the cost of Nu 1.4 million.

From: bhutanobserver.bt/

The Container–short film at Cannes

Cannes Film Festival 12 May, 2011 - The Container, a co-production between Bhutan and Australia, and shot in Gaselo village, Wangduephodrang, is screening at the short film corner of the Cannes film festival.
Inspired by a true event that took place in the 1980s, the 15-minute movie, directed by Jamyang Dorji, was shot in less than two weeks, and is about a mother’s devotion to her child, as she travels great distances from her poor, remote community, to get some medicine from a small basic health unit for her very ill child.

In a cruel twist of fate, she learns that, even though the medicine is provided for free, she must have a container to hold the precious liquid. She does not have a bottle and cannot afford to buy one, and the search begins.

At one time, the mother played by Deki Yangzom, who acted in Travelers and Magicians, even tries to sell her dzee (antique jewelry) to get herself an empty bottle. Her desperate search reveals the emotional core of a mother, who is constantly worried about the safety of her child. It also reflects the trials and tribulations of parenthood.

The container symbolises protection from the uncertainties of life. Life itself is difficult to hold and, sometimes, simple things affect it in a big way.

In the end, it also renders a spiritual touch, as the mother finally gets hold of a vase (bumpa) from a lhakhang to hold the medicine. The movie is art-based, focused on a subject and targeted at a select audience. The movie was screened at the Cannes film festival yesterday at 12am.

The purpose of short movies is not to make money, but to convey one’s artistic message, according to Tashi Gyeltshen, a filmmaker, who also said that short filmmaking is almost non existent in the country.

A short-film festival, called the Beskop Tshechu, was organised last year among Bhutanese short filmmakers.

Source: Kuenselonline.com

Bhutan: Docu Tailer

My Beloved Children

MOVIE REVIEW: Hingi Che-Thru or My Beloved Children, which premiered last Sunday at Trowa theatre, tests the sentiments of viewers. But to get to that point, viewers may have to sit tight and wait.
The film starts off slowly and viewers may not know where it’s leading. But eventually it picks up. It does not have the typical romance theme, but is based on typical social issues, woven around the plight of a family.

Dzomkey (Palden Tshomo) may be poor, have an alcoholic and irresponsible husband (Rinchen Namgay) and ten children to feed, but she is content. There are no arguments at home and she tolerates the drunken antics of her husband. But the couple’s refusal to adhere to family planning methods results in tragedy. Dzomkey develops cervical cancer and faces an untimely death.

The film is about the battle of a mother to ensure that her children’s lives are secure before she succumbs to the disease. She offers her children for adoption, but only after the consent of her children, husband and after meeting the prospective parents.

When the pace of the plot picks up, tear-jerking and heart rendering moments keep viewers glued to the screen. Palden Tshomo’s acting is impressive, especially since Hingi Che-Thru is her debut film.

There are no extraordinary cinematic feats but the characters blend well with the story, giving the film a touch of reality without exaggeration. The best part of the film is that it has no cheesy moments. The worst is it drags a bit, especially iat the beginning.

The movie is directed by Mila Tobgyal. His other films like Kangyel, Dangphu and Home Sweet Home, are also social issue based, where family planning, the taxation system of the past and rural to urban migration are mirrored.

From: kuenselonline.com

Off the beaten film track

Source: kuenselonline.com

The short film provides a training ground for the ‘artistic’ as opposed to commercial

28 September 2010 Within the rapidly evolving Bhutanese film industry that generally takes after the formula releases of Bollywood, there is a small group experimenting with filming in the hope of producing something different and thought provoking.
In this group are independent filmmakers, mainstream filmmakers, script writers, artists, and animators, who make documentaries, art, experimental, or offbeat films, which usually draws critics rather than the theatre going public.

“We wouldn’t call our films alternative to the mainstream, but it’s different,” said Dechen Roder, who has been making documentaries and editing films since 2004. She, like others, usually works on documentaries funded by international organisations.

At the Tshechu Beskop, a short film (under 20 minutes) festival last Saturday, Dechen screened her first short film at the VAST studio in Thimphu. The festival, first of its kind, also screened nine other short films, which were fiction narratives, documentaries and animation made by 11 filmmakers.

The film festival was aimed at bringing together short filmmakers to showcase their creativity and to encourage a new viewing culture and promote appreciation for different films.

“People don’t understand what short films are,” said Dechen Roder. “We try and tell powerful stories in much less time, compared with feature films”.

Since these films were independently made, there were no burden from or obligations to producers or others to sell the films. It also gave the makers more room to experiment and take risks.

“Liberated by this non-commercial factor, the films are more personal, more expressive, and of course, closer to the filmmakers heart. It is really about the intensity and the love of making films,” said Dechen. “Because we are all working on other projects for money, to make a small film on the side is when you can have the highest form of creative control”. “But it’s difficult to convince the audience,” said another short filmmaker. “It’s a training ground for us, who aspire to make feature films”.

According to the filmmakers, the beauty of short films was that nobody was paid for their service. It was more of mutual agreement of you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. It also provided actors with a space to try out something new and creative.

Tshering Dorji from Happy Valley, a theatre group, and the actor of the short film, ‘In the Realm of God’, said that each shot had a purpose and took the film forward, unlike most Bhutanese feature films. He played a mask dancer, who felt unvalued despite his strong role in preserving Bhutan’s rich culture.

Pema Tshering, the maker of ‘In the Realm of God’, who is a freelance artist, said that his artistic ability helped bring together strong visuals in his film. It was a situation, where the film provided an outlet for his artistic ability and, at the same time, his artistic ability helped him portray strong visuals.

His first short film, The Sound of Time, had no script but was powerful in visual and sound. Viewers could be left with questions as to why a young boy, roused suddenly from sleep, hops out of bed and races to a hilltop only to look out at the city, draw out his flute and play it.

But there is a sense of accomplishment and peace. The city below is given a fresh perspective by the music from the flute, which drowns out the noise, making the city feel natural and not man made.

A short animation film on garbage made by Green Dragon media’s Ashik Pradhan and Kavita with help from Chencho was a step forward for aspiring animators. Though the concept was borrowed, the visual and animation showed progress.

The Tshechu Beskop festival also provided an outlet for short films, which otherwise had no audience, apart from family and friends. Some filmmakers in the mainstream feature film industry said they were interested in short films, but had no option other than to churn out films to suit the Bhutanese taste.

An experienced Bhutanese filmmaker, Pelden Dorji, made a short film, Fruity, some time back, but it was lying around without any viewers.

The film that has no dialogue ends within a minute or two, but it leaves viewers with a lingering thought. A boy, who plays a prank on another boy by inserting a nail in an empty juice carton, knowing that the boy will burst it with his foot, comes across his own misdeed. He kicks a box covering a roadside rock and hurts his foot.

The future of short non-commercial films is not clear at the moment, but, as film makers say, it is the training ground for aspiring film makers

Bhutanese filmmaker rues poor response to SAFF

Source: DNA India

Bhutanese filmmaker Gyaltsen, who is currently in Goa for the ongoing South Asian Film Festival, rued the poor response to SAFF, a claim refuted by the organisers.

"I am little unhappy with the response the festival is getting from the audience. Although films are screened free of cost, they are not attracting much audience," said Gyaltsen, a filmmaker, who is part of Bhutan's delegation to SAFF.

The organisers should publicise the festival more, he said addressing delegates during the seminar on 'Our Films Global Films' held at Panaji this evening.

SAFF was shifted to Goa three years back and has been witnessing a low key response since then. Even the inaugural ceremony at Kala Academy witnessed a poor turnout.

Goa chief minister Digamber Kamat looking at the scarcely filled auditorium hoped in the future the festival will attract more crowd.

However, South Asia Foundation's secretary general Rahul Barua ruled out that the festival was not getting good response.

"For the first time, Pakistani and Bhutanese delegation has visited India for any festival. We are trying to break the boundaries," he said.

Barua said while Indian cinema is watched in all the South Asian countries, India does not show Pakistani, Bhutanese and Nepalese cinema.

"The festival aims to create audience for this cinema," he added.

Make our films a medium of culture

Source: bhutanobserver.bt

9 July 2010

I was born and brought up in a simple family, who mostly lived in the south ern part of the country. At the age of five or so, I was exposed to the Indian films, which are popular even today. I remem ber the incidence in Gelephu vividly where I used to sneak into the cinema hall that kept me engaged for several hours. At home, my mother would get sick out of tiring search for me. When Indian films were not known to many Bhutanese, I could pronounce the names of many actors and actresses and I gathered a good vocabulary of Hindi language.

That is how I was groomed and how I became fond of Bollywood and Hollywood films. And by the 1990s, Bhutanese documentaries and films made their way into the Bhutanese movie theatres and started taking shape with strong foundation within a couple of years. Today, Bhutanese films are doing so well in almost all the theatres in the country. We too have some communities outside the country that are genuinely Bhutanese film lovers.

Still, unfortunately, I was not inclined towards Bhuta nese films, and in my memory, I have very few Bhutanese films. The reason behind this was very simple. I judged the Bhutanese films by foreign standards in terms of qual ity. Often, I used to have hot debates with my friends who liked Bhutanese movies. In the end, I used to receive comments such as ‘you poor Bhutanese’, ‘Bhutanese films are unique’ etc.

Today, I am thousands of miles away from my coun try where I am different in so many ways from them, Australians. And homesick, missing family, missing Bhutanese dishes and system became almost part of my life for many weeks. When I was passing through very pain ful moments, only Bhutanese movies, which I got from my friends, give me so much of comfort and keep my tensions at bay. And more than that, in a deeper sense, I could discover the characteristic features of Bhutanese directed films.

I have watched a dozen of Bhutanese films. Indeed, for eign movies are really enter taining and educative in many ways, but they lack a very important substance which I could say is found in the films directed by our Bhutanese directors. Bhutanese mov ies are really unique in their own ways which I have come to realize very recently. How and why? I will leave it for you to find out. For me, happiness is the state of mind that can be achieved through constant practice, and it is independent of materials and surrounding environment that we live in.

Today, we have a very wise philosophy called GNH propounded by the fourth Druk Gyalpo and constantly our policy makers are trying to fit GNH into the system and make it reach every section of the society to achieve balanced growth between economic development and spiritual values.

Australia is a developed country and Australians say 10 years ago, they were happier than they are now. Loss of their happiness is simply due to lack of constant practice to remain happy. They work very hard in exploring new things at the cost of their own culture and identity to become happy.

Bhutan is developing and people are experiencing urban lifestyle. At this juncture, Bhutanese film industry will definitely play a bigger role in making Bhutanese happy because of its uniqueness. Our Bhutanese film directors should explore more Bhuta nese culture, system, feelings and Bhutanese lifestyle for the sake of the societies where culture, tradition and values are fast fading. On the other hand, our government should have faith in the young film industry and should come up with the best policy whereby the film industry could act as a tool to support and propagate GNH principles.

In the communities, school principals, heads of the com munities and parents should provide opportunities to their younger ones to watch Bhutanese films occasionally, which may have lasting posi tive impact in preserving age old traditions and culture. For many, home-made films will lead to the constant practice of happiness in their own ways.

By Chimi Dorji (Teacher)

Balling Higher Secondary School

Trashiyangtse

Seven Missed Calls: A review

source: bhutanobserver.bt

25 July 2010

Grudge and revenge is the subject of the latest action flick Seven Missed Calls, which is drawing a good number of audiences at the Lugar The atre in Thimphu.

The film revolves around the central theme of how people can get trapped in a vicious cycle of grudge. The chain never breaks as one person keeps confronting the other. Laying down arms and deciding to break the cycle eludes human beings because of ego. It is also a story of suspicion, and test of trust and love.

The movie is a sequel to Ar unachal Pradesh to Thimphu.

With the earlier cast resuming their roles and a strong storyline, the film is a response to the overwhelming demand from the audience, who could not get enough of the first part, said Jigme Ring, the male protagonist and director of the film.

Produce by Kinden Enter tainment at a cost of Nu 1.5 million, the film was released on June 24 in Paro.

The feedback from the pub lic is good and the turnover promising, said Jigme Ring.

Sangay Dorji, businessman and frequent movie goer, said he has not seen anything quite like this before in a Bhutanese film.

“My daughter wanted to watch this film. I thought it to be boring but, to my own surprise, I enjoyed the film,” said Sangay Dorji.

Many people said they en joyed the action sequence and songs, but thought the story was not convincing.

Ugyen, an employee of a private firm, said he did not enjoy the film.

“It has a little too much of action,” he said.

Seven Missed Calls is also being screened in Mig Hall in Phuntsholing.

Sarim Jarim

Source: Review : Saarim Jarim | Druk Trowa

Just like the Ying and the Yang are two opposite and different things but complement each other, so are the two characters in the Film who are two different people but somehow complete each other even though they don’t know it initially.

Tshering is a police officer who is having problems at work since a convict escapes from prison while he is on duty and he gets a verbal thrashing from his boss leaving him angry and feeling lower than the dirt below his feet.

Tandin is a college graduate who is frustrated with her life since she cannot get a job for herself though she is highly qualified. She drinks and goes to commit suicide because of her failure but is saved by Tshering who is at the same spot at the moment and feels that it is his duty to stop the cowardliness.  Tandin is thrown out of her sister’s house and seeing that she has nowhere to go, Tshering offers to let her stay at his place till she gets a job but as Tandin begins to prolong her stay it results in her falling in love with him and Tshering getting irritated with her every time. Tshering has many other love interests in his life and this makes Tandin sad and hopeless. However, she is persuaded and instigated by Tshering’s orderly (Phurpa Thinley) to win him over. Tandin tries her best but to no avail. Tshering doesn’t show the slightest interest in her and soon she leaves his home feeling dejected.

It is only after she leaves that he misses her and realizes that he has fallen in love with her. He realizes that “Jarim” (as he lovingly calls her) completes him. They are finally reunited but then arises objections from his family in the beginning who finally submit to the love of “Sarim” and “Jarim” in the end.

The movie has been well scripted and the songs in the movie will set many people humming to the tunes. “Sarim” and “Jarim” along with Phurpa Thinley manage to produce comedy which is continual and relieving. The movie has the ingredients that make up a commercially viable must watch Film supplying comedy, romance, sadness, songs and dance.

First national talent hunt begins

Source: kuenselonline.com

25 June, 2010 - Bhutanese interested in joining the entertainment business or the film industry will now have a window to showcase acting, singing and dancing talents.
Mila communications in Thimphu launched the first national talent hunt yesterday, and will soon start auditions throughout the country. The hunt, at the end of the audition, will select top actors, both male and female, and child actors in acting, singing, mimicking and dancing.

“Bhutanese youth are talented, but there’s no platform for them to showcase their talents,” said the proprietor of Mila communication, Mila Tobgyel. “Even the present actors mayn’t have been there in the film industry, if they hadn’t met film directors and producers, who offered them the opportunity.”

The audition will start from Zhemgang on July 3, after which they will go to all other dzongkhags.

The audition will be done under six categories. Ten actors each for women, men and children will be selected, and another 20 best comedians, 10 each from both male and female category will be selected.

“Finally, the best three will be selected and sent to the Asian film academy in New Delhi for training,” said the proprietor. The final selection will be done on February 20 next year.

Mila Tobgyel said that the talent hunt is a new concept to create jobs opportunities for youth, while aiming at preserving culture and tradition.

By Nima Wangdi

Bhutan filmmakers to take risks

Source: thestar.com 

By Rick Westhead
South Asia Bureau

The ramshackle movie theatre is filled with rickety wood benches and has a few, bare light bulbs to help patrons find an available, if uncomfortable seat. There are small pools of spit left on the cement floor from people chewing paan, and rats dart under the seats, scrounging for bits of popcorn.

Tsokye Karchung, a former Trent University student, returned to her native Bhutan in 2008 and has become a celebrity there. She stars in a popular Bhutanese film which tackles HIV. Bhutan filmmakers are still constrained by strict govenment rules. - Rick Westhead/Toronto Star

It hardly looks like a front line in the battle to preserve a nation’s culture.

Yet cinemas like this one have become tools in an effort to ensure local customs and traditions are showcased in front of a young audience enraptured with western television and the Internet. Like the eight other movie theatres in this Buddhist kingdom, the Luger Theatre doesn’t show Hollywood or even Bollywood fare.

A decade ago, at about the same time western satellite television made its debut in this mountainous nation, local businessmen in Bhutan began financing homegrown films.

The industry enjoyed a modest start. In 2003, six locally produced movies were made in Bhutan.

But since then, Bhutan’s movie industry has evolved into a surprisingly vibrant industry. Last year, local filmmakers churned out 23 feature-length movies, meaning a new film debuts at theatres like the Luger almost every second week.

Actors in most films speak the national language, Dzongkha, and some movies feature English subtitles. Traditional Bhutanese clothing is a must, according to rules set down by the country’s film board. Women onscreen wear the kira, a Bhutanese-styled kimono; men wear the gho, a cloth smock that reaches to the knees.

“The government is pretty strict,” said Sherub Gyaltshen, secretary of Bhutan’s motion picture association. “There’s no glamorizing the West or showing characters in too many western clothing.”

Early on, Bhutanese films played it relatively safe. The first domestically produced movie in 1999 was a local adaptation of Untamed Heart, a saccharin-steeped love story starring Christian Slater and Marisa Tomei, Gyaltshen said. Subsequent films have highlighted the importance of the family unit and traditional local values.

A 2003 feature called Travelers and Magicians appeared at film festivals in Toronto and Venice. But it didn’t win many admirers in Bhutan, where customers preferred to hand over $2.25 for tickets to see more formulaic movies and those that featured Bollywood-like singing and dancing.

But recent films are challenging social mores.

This spring, Shh, Galu Yon Malap (“Don’t Tell Anybody”) made its big-screen debut. The film starred Tsokye Karchung, a former Trent University student who left school and returned to Bhutan two years ago because of a medical condition. In the movie, Karchung, who also was crowned Miss Bhutan in 2008, played a young woman lured by the relative bright lights of Thimphu, Bhutan’s capital city.

Karchung’s character contracts HIV and is ostracized by her family. Her life begins to take a positive turn when a longtime friend, considered something of a loser in society, develops a close relationship with her, sharing a water bottle and food with her, highlighting some of the myths about how HIV is spread.

While films are supposed to be shown for no longer than 22 days, to give other pictures a chance to be screened, Shh, Galu Yon Malap has been a fixture in theatres for several months.

“It’s not a film you would have seen 10 years ago, for sure,” Karchung said, sipping honey and ginger tea on a recent afternoon in one of Thimphu’s new wireless Internet-connected cafes.

The actress, a pretty 25-year-old with shoulder-length brown hair and a tattoo that runs up her arm and reads “This too shall pass” in Dzongkha, recently received a call from a female fan who said she loved Karchung and wanted to connect. Turned out her fan was a patient in a local mental hospital.

“I briefly thought about where we could do something about that in a movie, but I don’t think Bhutan is ready for that, yet,” she said.

Most films here cost about $45,000 to make and roughly one-quarter of them turn a profit, said Gyaltshen, from the motion picture association.

Karma Tshering, a 42-year-old director who lives in Thimphu, says he’s planning a new movie that should cost close to $70,000. His new film will be a period piece set in the early 1800s, when Bhutan was still a series of small kingdoms. The film will explore Bhutan’s tradition of “night hunting,” a rural custom in which men visit women in their parents’ homes for late evening rendezvous.

“If the women wanted to play tricks, they’d tell the man the wrong room and he’d wind up in her parents’ bedroom,” Tshering said. “I don’t see how anyone can say not to make a movie about this, it’s part of our culture.”

Bhutan: Taking the middle Path to Happiness, wins Emmy

Source: mauinews.com

NANCY VENDETTI photo Producer Tom Vendetti (right) and composer-associate producer Christopher Hedge were in San Francisco on Saturday. While there, they won Emmy Awards for their documentary “Bhutan: Taking the Middle Path to Happiness.”

Maui video producer Tom Vendetti and associate producer/composer Christopher Hedge have brought home Emmy Awards in two categories for the documentary "Bhutan: Taking The Middle Path to Happiness."

Vendetti and Hedge each won Emmys for their collaboration in the historic/cultural program/special category, and Hedge's score won the musical composition/arrangement prize in the 39th annual Northern California Area Emmy Awards presented Saturday night at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis.

"There's an intense amount of anticipation waiting for the announcement, but when the award was announced, all this weight went off my shoulders," an exhilarated Vendetti said Monday morning after returning to Maui. "When I was at the podium, I felt relaxed and a tremendous relief compared to a minute earlier."

Working with fellow video artists Robert C. Stone and John Wehrheim, Vendetti and Hedge made the Bhutan film in 2005 and released it in 2007. It visits the remote Himalayan country, located between India and China, showing not only Bhutan's robust people and dramatic beauty but its culture's unique concept of "gross national happiness."

Since 1972, Bhutan's government has sought ways of balancing environmental protection and preservation and the psychological well-being of its people against the pressures of economic development.

"I believe there's a lot of wisdom to be found around the world," Vendetti said of the film's theme. "The concept of gross national happiness is extremely important."

It entails protecting the environment, transparency in government, protecting culture, "and then having economic stability," he said. "It's essentially taking the middle path as the world is embracing globalization and materialism."

The production has been distributed nationally on PBS and has been seen around the world at various film festivals, he said.

Vendetti also collaborated with producer Wehrheim and director Stone on "Taylor Camp," a documentary about a unique commune that sprang up on the island of Kauai in 1969, that will screen at 7 p.m. June 2 in Castle Theater at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center.

Meanwhile, young filmmaker Kara Henderson and Ma Ka Hana Ka 'Ike have won the "Best of GoodTube" award from "Profiles in Caring," a television show that has won four Emmy Awards and is broadcast on more than 100 stations in the U.S. and globally.

Henderson's contribution to the program was a nonprofit video documentary that chronicles the Hana program for at-risk students to change their lives by participating in building projects that develop and improve facilities in the area. This spring, students have been installing renewable energy systems in Hana homes.

Henderson is a former student in the program who just completed her bachelor's degree in media arts from Brigham Young University and has two documentary films in progress.

"By connecting youth with their community and focusing on sustainable directions, Ma Ka Hana Ka 'Ike is helping create future leaders like Kara Henderson for our islands," said Rick Ruiz, the organization's founder and executive director.

The award-winning segment for "Profiles in Caring" can be viewed online at www.hanabuild.org.

* Rick Chatenever can be reached at scene@mauinews.com.

Shh.. Galuya Malab

Source: Facebook Page

By: Dorji Wangchuk

I went for the premiere of a new movie – Shh.. Galuya Malab. It is another movie by my friend Tshering Wangyel with Tsokye Tshomo Karchung in the lead and also executive producing it. Knowing both Wangyel and Tsokye, I had a huge expectation from the film. Especially with Tsokye’s sensitivity to social issues we face in this country.
The film tells the story of Deki (played by Tsokye) - a successful career woman but who contracts the deadly virus. Tshering Phuntsho plays her arranged fiancée Tshering who accidentally infects her. Her career and her life come to a halt only to be rescued by her jobless and happy-go-lucky childhood friend Tobgay (played by Karma Chechung).
I must say, all in all, I was not disappointed. There was, of course, the “necessary” dose of commercialism in the first half, with disjointed sub-plots and dance numbers, that does not take the story forward. But I know without these, Wangyel tells me, the film won't sell. And understandably there is no use making a film people don't watch. The wonderful tweaks by Phurba Thinley and Gyem Dorji keep you going though.
But once the film moves beyond the turning point, every scene, every plot and even the song sequence is powerful enough to move the hall. Tsokye is brilliant in her role and Karma maintains his position as a versatile actor. Tsokye, Karma and Tshering Phuntsho together with other younger likes of Chencho Dorji and Tandin Bidha are whom I call the “young guns of the Bhutanese cinema.” Hopefully they would take our cinema to the next level. They are young, they are energetic and they are in the industry because they are passionate about films.
Shhh... Galuya Malab is a must-see. For one reason. It is brutally honest in depicting a major flaw in our character – the hypocritical behaviour of our society that is quick to act on ignorance rather than on sound reasoning or logic or on jampa dang ngingzhi (compassion and altruism) that we proclaim to have as Buddhists.
Film is a powerful mass medium that is also supposed to make you think, contemplate and discuss. This film did really make me think and my heart went out those who are really HIV+.
If I have to coin a one-liner for the film – "It is a movie with a meaning."
If you have never seen a Bhutanese film, start with this one!

Song of the Wind

Source: Facebook

 

Release Date:

July

Genre:

Art/Drama/Comedy

Studio:

Clear Light Productions

Starring:

Karma Choechong, Pabitra Rai, Choki, Karma Tshering, Lhamo Drukpa, 'Bombay' Tashi, Namgay Retty

Screenplay By:

Phuntsok Rabten

Directed By:

Palden Dorji & Phuntsok Rabten

Produced By:

Dasho ST, Rinzin Ongdra & Phuntsok Rabten

 

Plot Outline:

Tashi, a young engineer with a deep passion for music, is the front man in a contemporary band. As circumstances unfold, he is forced to meet Ap, a legend in traditional music who has renounced music to pursue the spiritual path. In their charged interactions, he gets more than he ever bargained for from Ap. It marks the evolution of a modern-day professional as he explores the deeper recesses of timeless themes through traditional music. The dynamics of traditional insights soon engulfs all aspects of his contemporary life: in his romance, his torn relationship with a father he has never met, a mother driven by practical concerns and his relationship with work and people. This is a modern-day story about change and evolution - that seeks to imbibe the essence of a timeless past into the dynamic present to propell it into a fresh future.