Oslo, January 7: A Tibetan documentary film “What Remains of us” by Francois Prevost and Hugo Latulippe has been selected for 18th Tromsø International Film Festival (TIFF), to be held from January 15-20, and also nominated for its Norwegian Film Peace Award.
What Remains of Us is one the many documentaries about the invasion and subsequent ethnic cleansing of Tibet by the People’s Republic of China.
In the film, Kalsang Dolma, a young Tibetan woman who has found refuge in Quebec, smuggled into Tibet a videotaped message from the Dalai Lama calling for continuing peaceful resistance. The filmmakers taped Tibetans’ reactions before, during and after playing the message back on a portable video recorder allowing ordinary people in Tibet to talk to the outside world about their struggle and hopes and leaving a powerful effect on viewers.
The movie has been put on halt from public release for safety concerns of the Tibetan characters portrayed in it although it has been screened widely taking necessary security measures since 2004. In fact Francois Prevost recently traveled to Dharamsala, the exile home the Dalai Lama and the Tibet’s Government-in Exile, to hold closed-door screening to a section of selected Tibetan audience to find ways for the possible commercial release of the film.
The movie has won several awards, including Best Canadian Feature Film Award (2004), Award for Best Documentary by Hollywood Film Festival (2004) and was named one of the One of the Top 10 Canadian Films of 2004 at Toronto International Film Festival.
TIFF is the biggest film festival held in Northern Norway. It is a popular film festival, and at the same time an important meeting point for Norwegian and International film industry.
TIFF 2008 will be Tromsø’s 18th international film festival. They screen challenging quality films for local, national and international audience. Tromsø is the largest Norwegian town north of the Arctic Circle, the gateway to the Arctic and boasts the world’s northernmost university. The city enjoys midnight sun from May 18 to July 26.
“When we go to a clandestine screening of a film that the Chinese authorities wish it didn’t exist because it documents the painful longing of Tibetan people for their leader and their independence,” says Martha Otte, Festival Director.
”What Remains of Us” documentary film is one of the 11 nominees for the Norwegian Peace Film Award. This award is given to a film spotlighting direct, structural or cultural violence, and which, in a creative way, contributes to the prevention or reduction of violence and war.
Tromsø International Film Festival, together with Centre for Peace Studies (CPS) at the University of Tromsø, and the Student Network for Peace (SNF), has established this prize because of the power in film and storytelling. “We believe that films focusing on oppression and abuse of power can make a difference,” the website of the Norwegian Peace Film Award committee notes.
Casting and narrator Miss Kalsang Dolma is invited for the festival. “The Norwegian Tibet Committee will use this opportunity to highlight Tibetan issue as well as our ongoing 2008 Beijing Olympic campaign during the festival,” says Mr Tord Eriksen, board member of Norwegian Tibet Committee from Tromsø.
Based on report by Chungdak Koren of Norwegian Tibet Committee (info@tibet.no /0047 95024443).
