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!