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97 min | USA | 35 mm
digital new wave
european premiere
credits
PROD: Paul Wagner Productions
SALES: Paul Wagner Productions
SCENARIO: Julia Elliot, Thupten Tsering, Paul Wagner
CAMERA: Steven Schecter
EDITOR: Paul Wagner, Tony Black
SOUND: Sam Chapin
MUSIC: Sam Chapin, Tommy Hayes, John Dana, Dadon
CAST: Dadon, Jampa Kelsang, Richard Chang, Lu Yu, Taije Silverman
screenings
29 friday 20:15 Venster 1
02 tuesday 12:00 Venster 1
03 wednesday 20:00 Path� 3
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Paul Wagner took advantage of his pronounced documentary background while making this feature situated in Tibet. The political tone of the story forced him to adopt a very roundabout approach. The film was shot secretly, partly in Tibet and partly in Nepal, and Wagner used two digital cameras: a large professional camera for the interior shots and a small amateur camera for outdoors. Thanks to the small camera, he was able to pretend to be a tourist, while the quality of his handy digital-camera pictures guaranteed they could be blown up to cinema format. The film is set in today's Tibet under Chinese occupation andtells the story of Dolkan, a singer. She has aspirations to be a Tibetan pop star. She collaborates with the Chinese authorities, but finds herself in a crisis of conscience when her cousin Pema, a Buddhist nun, is taken prisoner and tortured because of her religious faith. Wagner largely worked with Tibetans he found on the spot and most of them had no acting experience. If a scene had too obvious a political meaning, such as a demonstration being broken up by the police, it was shot with Tibetan actors in Nepal. Wagner aimed for the greatest possible degree of authenticity and also reacted against popular Tibet films such as Kundun (shot in Morocco) and Seven Years in Tibet (shot in Argentina).
Paul Wagner
Paul Wagner studied English and communication at the University of Kentucky and attended a course in acting and theatre directing. He is co-author of two books and has produced and directed several documentaries, incuding the Emmy Award winner The Stone Carvers.
films
Miles of Smiles (1982), The Stone Carvers (1984), The Congress of Wonders (1994), Out of Ireland (1994), Signature: George C. Wolfe (1996), The Battle of the Alamo (1996), Windhorse (1998)
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