The filmmaker, reunited with his friend, prepares a traditional song for Tibet in Song, a film by Ngawang Choephel.
Photo by David Huang
While some Tibetans took advantage of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to the United Nations this week to protest China's rule over Tibet, Tibetan filmmaker and former political prisoner Ngawang Choephel took a different approach.
Choephel screened his documentary, Tibet in Song, in New York. The film opened Friday and is playing at Cinema Village Theater in New York City until Oct. 2. Tibet in Song will also play in 11 other U.S. cities this fall. Filmgoers will be able to meet Choephel at many of the screenings.
"I decided to return to Tibet to see how Tibetan music was destroyed by the Chinese," Choephel's says in the film's trailer.
Tibet in Song started as a project to document Tibetan music, but Choephel soon found himself as part of the story when he was arrested as he drove to visit his father while filming in Tibet in 1995.
After his arrest, Choephel was convicted, without a trial, of spying and spent over six years in prison before a host of celebrities, including singer Annie Lennox, former U.S. Senator of Vermont James Jeffords and Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy helped secure his release in 2002.
Through traditional Tibetan folk music, Tibet in Song examines China's invasion of Tibet, the Dalai Lama's subsequent exile in 1959, and the struggles Tibet has faced in the last five decades. The film is a must-see as it gives a rare firsthand look at Tibet's cultural struggle.
Rate and Review Tibet in Song.
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