Tibetan Film & Arts Festival

Overview

The image of Tibet in the popular imagination often amounts to either the beatific face of the Dalai Lama, or the giant, fierce peaks of the Himalayas feathered with prayer flags. The first ever Tibetan Film & Arts Festival gives Sydneysiders a chance to dig deeper: to explore the diverse creative output of the Tibetan people in the face of political and cultural oppression.

The festival kicks off in Sydney at the Opera House this Thursday with a lush music-arts-ideas mash-up in Raga Shambala: For Tibet with Love. Led by traditional musician and vocalist Tenzin Choegyal, whose compositions invoke the fast-disappearing nomadic world of Tibet, the concert promises a fusion of Tibetan song, Indian tabla and Western classical guitar. The music will interact with the images of accomplished Tibetan artist Karma Phuntsok. The second half of the evening will see a change in pace, with a lively debate led by charismatic Tibetan poet and activist Tenzin Tsundue on the topic 'Is Tibet a Lost Cause?'.

The films on offer during the festival, many of them Australian premieres, will give audiences the chance to discover the diversity of voices coming from modern Tibet. The documentary Summer Pasture provides an intimate glimpse into the lives of a young family of Tibetan nomads under pressure from rapid modernisation, as government policies force nomads into permanent settlement. Sky Dancer is a portrait of a female teacher in a remote part of Tibet: Khandroma Kunzang Wangmo is both Buddhist master and beloved matriarch, and she also loves to listen to techno in her SUV. Journey of a Dream is about one individual's struggle with faith and politics; the documentary tells the story of a Tibetan refugee and how "heavy metal saved [his] life".

The Tibetan Film & Arts Festival promises to be a festival of discovery as well as a creative interrogation of ideas about the nature of freedom, freedom of expression and the cost of silence.