Pema Tseden's debut feature film. Set in the filmmaker's home town in Amdo during Tibetan new year, is a portrait of a young monk who navigates his monastic life against the pull of the secular world.The film was an Official Selection for the Pusan, Hong Kong, Rotterdam, and San Francisco International Film Festivals, and the International Buddhist Film Festival, and has had screenings at numerous other film festivals and events around the world.
Pema Tseden was born in 1969 in Qinghai Province, China and was the first Tibetan filmmaker in China to make films entirely in the Tibetan language. His early works, also known as “The Tibetan Trilogy”: The Silent Holy Stones (2005), The Search (2009) and Old Dog (2012), captured the lived realities of contemporary Tibet from an insider’s perspective and formed a distinctive aesthetic style. His later works, such as Tharlo (2015), Jinpa (2018) and Balloon (2019) continued to explore the complexities of the Tibetan experience in a changing society while actively engaging in artistic experimentation. With his movies, Pema Tseden won awards at film festivals both domestically and internationally and is recognized as a leading figure in Tibetan New Wave cinema. Pema Tseden passed away suddenly in May 2023.
Discussants:
Ron Gregg, Film and Media Studies
Yewong Dongchung, East Asian Languages and Cultures
Moderator: Ying Qian, Associate Professor, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures
The event is cosponsored by the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Weatherhead East Asian Institute, C.V. Starr East Asian Library, Modern Tibetan Studies Program, and Film and Media Studies Program.
Contact Information
Lauran Hartley
[email protected]
