himalaya ( film )
himalaya film festival session 14 is not showing in any theaters in the area .
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please join the ubc himalaya program and the curator for asia at the museum of anthropology for a reception to celebrate the launch of the himalaya program at ubc .
himalaya is a film about choices, pride and forgiveness, filled with memorable characters and stunning scenery. and if you like yaks, this is the film for you .
- jennie punter, toronto star
2014 toronto reel asian international film festival himalaya song and reception @ aga khan museum, november 13, 2014. photos by chelsea chen & jennifer martin
the film has now screened at film festivals and universities in over 17 countries worldwide, with support from entertainment professionals, advocacy groups, and academics alike .
valli: without thinlen, there would be no film. “himalaya” is thinlen’s story; he inspired the story. thinlen is the chief of this area of dolpo, and he pulled everybody together. our friendship was key. no thinlen, no film .
ozon' s provocative film can do much to improve attitudes towards lgbti people .
bruno coulais - la mort de lhakpa - himalaya l' enfance d' un chef musique soundtrack. wmv
the himalaya program, the centre for indian and south asian research, and the department of asian studies .
valli is a romantic adventurer, a man who likens his affinity for nepal to that of an epic love affair. valli began traveling when he was 18 years old in order to find out about human differences. now he’s made a film essentially about their similarities. visually, “himalaya” is intoxicating, but deeper is a story so universal that audiences in europe and asia have already embraced the film. and this year in the united states, “himalaya” was an academy award nominee for best foreign film, the first nepalese entry to be considered for an oscar. “himalaya” opens in new york on june 22 .
pad yatra was an official selection in over 33 film festivals, and won 10 awards on the festival circuit. it has screened at the united nations, university of oxford, yale himalaya initiative, british academy of film and television, and many more. connect with us to arrange a screening in your community .
symposium and film on dalit issues in nepal with mr. moti lal nepali and dr. drona prakash rasali
a film of unusual visual beauty and enormous intrinsic interest .
- roger ebert, chicago sun - times
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a beautiful and thematically rich nepalese film about the many lessons learned by some villagers from the high mountains during their annual yak caravan .
norbu’s repertoire ranges from traditional imagery to unique depictions of daily life, religious practice, and landscape. his work was highlighted in the 1998 film himalaya (caravan), the only nepali film to have been nominated for an academy award. over the past fifteen years, norbu’s work has been featured in exhibitions in global cities, from kathmandu and new york city, to aarhus, monaco, lucerne, paris, osaka, tokyo, and thimphu, bhutan .
iw: you and thinlen have wanted to make a film together for a long time; almost 15 years. how much input did thinlen have ?
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice, telling a story of startling cruelty. what a space it opens…
the film captures the culture of nepal through spectacular cinematography and interactions with locals along the way .
the intention of the film was not to hype flying although you see us flying and we talk about flying ,
said michaelis .
the film is more about being immersed in the culture. the paragliders were just our vehicles for seeing the country and getting lost in it .
in the film, the pilots touch down in one tiny village after another. with each landing they are received with swarms of warm welcomes as the jagged, snow capped peaks of the annapurna range in the himalayas tower in the background .
so begins
himalaya ,
a film of unusual visual beauty and enormous intrinsic interest. set in the dolpo area of nepal, it has been directed by eric valli, a photographer who has lived in nepal for years, filmed it for national geographic, and made documentaries about it. now in this fiction film he uses conflict to build his story, but it' s clear the narrative is mostly an excuse; this movie is not so much about what its characters do, as about who they are .
imagine that every person in the world is enlightened but you ,
buddha says .
they are all your teachers, each doing just the right things to help you learn patience, perfect wisdom, perfect compassion .
this quotation provides the perfect setup for himalaya, an astonishingly beautiful and thematically rich nepalese film that presents many vanishing elements of a faraway tibetan culture .
the film - entitled simply ‘sikkim’ - is a 1971, 55 - minute documentary that was mired in controversy from the moment of its making. commissioned by the then king of sikkim, it was banned by the government of india after sikkim was ‘merged’ with india in 1975. the film has recently been restored and re - released .
this is no accident, as the director, éric valli, has also worked as a photographer for the magazine. mr. valli, who is french, has lived in nepal since 1983 and made several documentaries there.'' himalaya,'' his first fictional feature, which was nominated for a best foreign film oscar this year, shows his intimacy with the country' s human as well as its natural geography .
indiewire: how did your extensive photographic background contribute to your decision to tell this story? visually, this film is truly beautiful. did your background give you an edge on documenting this region ?
valli: i think it’s very important that the film entertains you. but i think it has to be more. there are so many films that you come out of and you’re just saying, “oh, wow, what did i see? ” you forget what you see. you are entertained or kind of bombarded with the music, with incredible images and with special effects. you come out of it and it’s like if you ate something, yet you are still hungry. it doesn’t fill you. i think making a film is a huge amount of energy and money and time. and i think a film has to be entertaining first, but it has to be much more than that too. i like a film to make me think, to make me learn things which i don’t know and to make me feel. a film is a way to communicate emotion. it’s not only information, but emotion also. i’m an old - fashioned kind of guy that way .
it took a little while, but funding came through to continue our film project. in the fall of 2012, we found ourselves trekking a high - altitude himalayan trail in nepal. i had a camera in one hand and a tripod in the other, and i stopped often to film and soak it all in. i had dreamed of visiting the himalayas of nepal since i was a child .
valli: you are the first one who made me think about this. i never thought about the parallel between the two. i guess it does come full circle. we went to shoot this film without any ending. we had eight different endings and we didn’t know which one it was going to be when we started to shoot the film. and it was the 9th different ending that came to our mind, and it came to us so naturally. there was no other possible ending to this film, then this one — the one that we shot. the eight other endings were fake .
valli: it is exactly the same. when you see the snowstorm, it is a real snowstorm. it was in front of the camera and behind the camera. for nine months, we were on the trail of the real caravan. what you see on the screen is what we also experienced as filmmakers. this film is an adventure film, but at the same time it is a document. this is the only film made on tibetan culture. i’m not talking about scorsese ‘s “ kundun, ” or jean - jacques annaud ‘s “ seven years in tibet, ” about a westerner discovering tibet .
shot with solar power by himalayan monk ngawang sodpa, the film features united nations mdg honoree the gyalwang drukpa, and indian actor and environmental advocate, aamir khan. the film is executive produced by michelle yeoh (crouching tiger hidden dragon, james bond: tomorrow never dies), narrated by daryl hannah (kill bill, bladerunner), and it is the debut feature documentary from director wendy j. n. lee .
( c) 1999 kino international | urltoken | filmed over seven months in the forbidden dolpo region of nepal, himalaya tells the story of a generational struggle for the leadership of a tiny mountain village between its proud old chief and a headstrong young caravanner. the balance of power shifts uneasily as they make their annual salt trek across the himalayas. a visually striking and spiritually captivating portrait of life in one of the world' s most extraordinary places, himalaya is both intense drama and a gorgeous tapestry of the fast disappearing traditions of tibetan life .
this film may not be everyone' s cup of tea but it is served in a gorgeous and delicate teacup. the story is simple, perhaps too simple. but it is drawn against the magnificent background of nepal. even bad photography would be good in that part of the world but the camera work in himalaya is superb, sensitive and sweeping, richly textured and impressively framed. the most amazing aspect of this rare film is that none of the performers are actors! they play themselves flawlessly. the faces, frequently in harsh close up, are noble and full of character. hollywood never could duplicate one silver haired old woman who is a living work of art. the children are beautiful and lack any self consciousness whatsoever in front of the camera. utterly amazing! it' s a movie for film freaks and those who appreciate fine photography. but somehow the world is a slightly better place because it was made !
author doug prose films on the flanks of a volcano in central mongolia during one of the six scientific expeditions featured in “the himalaya connection, ” which explores the indo - australian - eurasian plate collision. the documentary will air on pbs later this year. credit: diane lamacchia .
there is no doubt that mr. valli and his screenwriter, olivier dazat, were motivated by a deep respect for the people of the dolpo. their reverence, and their desire to protect and record a way of life no doubt threatened by the encroachments of modernity, may have prevented them from probing the society too deeply.'' himalaya'' is a work of polite ethnography, a coffee - table book of a film that invites us to behold an exotic world from a comfortable and complacent distance .
while in nepal on our 2012 trip, we also filmed with bishal upreti, a prominent nepali geologist at tribhuvan university. bishal is a kind person deeply in love with the himalaya. in a film interview, he detailed the range’s many superlatives: earth’s highest peaks; earth’s largest block of uplifted terrain, when combined with the tibetan plateau; the creator of the indian monsoon; and the source of freshwater for almost half the people alive today. midway through our interview, he suddenly interrupted himself with a wave of his hand and asked if he could quickly say something nongeologic. bishal looked up at the mountains, smiled, and said, “when you are in the himalaya, and when you go to those serene places below those snow peaks, it is the dream of a lifetime. it’s so wonderful to be there; unless you are there, you will never realize what you are missing! ” i was amazed. even nepalis, most of whom do not live in the shadow of the great peaks, dream of going to them. our documentary begins with bishal’s thoughts and dreams of the himalaya .
mountainfilm' s sponsors choose to partner with us for more than just return on investment considerations; they strongly believe in mountainfilm' s mission to use the power of film, art and ideas to inspire audiences to create a better world .
( indiewire / 06. 22. 01) — in many ways, eric valli has been researching his feature film debut, “ himalaya, ” for almost twenty years. an acclaimed photographer, whose work has been published in national geographic, the new york times magazine, smithsonian and life, valli has created a universal tale of love, life, betrayal and death — set against the unforgiving nature of the northeastern dolpo region in nepal. valli has lived in the dolpo region for nearly two decades, and valli’s two best friends were the inspiration for the film’s main characters, tinle and norbou. valli has also written numerous books about his adopted country. and in 1992, he was awarded the gurka dakshin baho from the king of nepal, in honor of valli’s body of work about nepal .
the dvd manages to enhance an already extraordinary film with many extras. it includes audio commentary by dirctor eric valli, a 26 - minute
making of
documentary, the theatrical trailer, and the original electronic press kit with interviews and features .
shortly after producing the film, we went to tibet to film geophysicist simon klemperer of stanford university and produce a short video about his research. simon intended to visit dozens of tibetan hot springs to collect gas and water samples, with the aim of locating the northern limit of the indo - australian plate below the eurasian plate. no one knows where the end of the plate is, but it’s somewhere under tibet. tibet’s geology is rooted in the ongoing plate collision and rise of the himalayas, and it is subject to damaging earthquakes. this seemed like a fantastic opportunity to enhance our documentary’s story both scientifically and aesthetically. the film trip went forward in october 2016, wrapping up just as season - ending winter snows began falling. the footage turned out beautifully — tibet was in .
the 2015 nepal earthquakes had catastrophic impacts on the lives and property of himalayan peoples. join the ubc himalaya program as dr. spoon discusses his study which focuses on four settlements in two of the hardest hit districts with differing access, aid, and populations. we randomly selected 400 households in these locations and conducted two ...
defying both tinle and the village' s council of lamas, karma takes off across the mountains with most of the yaks and the young villagers to trade the salt for grain. the outraged tinle sets off in pursuit, accompanied by tsering (who has been renamed passang); the boy' s mother, pema (lhakpa tsamchoe); norbou; and a few other superstitious old - timers. the film' s long second half follows the two parties through dusty highland valleys and treacherous mountain passes. one imagines that filming'' himalaya'' was nearly as arduous and risky as the trek it records .
canada tibet committee and the ubc himalaya program invite you to a workshop and discussion forum exploring human rights implications of the canada - china free trade agreement, in particular in relation to tibet. workshop participants will look at the canada - china free trade agreement through a human rights lens, with attention to tibet as a case example... .
ubc himalaya program is hosting a talk which will consider the topic of incarnate lamas (tulkus) —births of the same awakened consciousness in successive human bodies. it will focus particularly on the practices used to locate subsequent incarnations of deceased tibetan lamas. these practices involve analyzing prophecies and divinations, as well as evaluating child tulku candidates in a ...
find the archived video of this event here. save the date for the first himalaya program event of the 2017 - 18 academic year! join us for a lecture by deepak thapa, director of the social science baha research institute in kathmandu, and a well - known political analyst and commentator. nepal has been undergoing a political transition since ...
the ubc himalaya program and the tibetan cultural society of british columbia (tcsbc) are excited to announce that we will be co - hosting a lecture by dr. losang rabgey, executive director of machik, an organization supporting communities on the tibetan plateau, and a showing of the award - winning tibetan documentary “valley of the heroes” by filmmaker kashem ...
join the ubc himalaya program for a roundtable discussion about health policy and practice in nepal. medical and public health professionals from ubc, university of victoria, and the university of washington explore the challenges and opportunities of working in nepal, across fields including emergency care, family practice, health education, midwifery, and mental health. rsvp for the ...
this talk engages these points of tension, discussing how tibetan medicine remains at once a crucial form of local health care across tibetan communities, a manifestation of national identity, and, increasingly, a globally available form of ‘traditional’ medicine in the 21st century. this event is sponsored by the himalaya program, the contemporary tibetan studies program, and the department of anthropology .
by now, our film project’s timeline had stretched on long enough for results to begin trickling in from karl wegmann’s research in mongolia. the data his group collected were fascinating, both confirming and contradicting certain elements of theories about mongolia’s connection with the distant indo - australian - eurasian plate collision .
a large part of the appeal of'' himalaya'' comes from the breathtaking beauty of its setting, the mountainous, sparsely populated dolpo region of nepal. exquisitely filmed in cinemascope, a format whose wide frames and panoramic angles emphasize the lonely grandeur of the landscape, the movie offers an intoxicating dose of armchair tourism, like a national geographic pictorial brought to life .
the ubc himalaya program is hosting a dialogue between ubc faculty member dr. wade davis (department of anthropology), and h. h. the 17th gyalwang karmapa. the title of this event is “interconnected – our environment and social (in) equality”. we are pleased to partner with the karma kagyu association of canada and thrangu monastery to welcome h. h... .
tenzing rigdol is a leading contemporary tibetan artist and activist, born in kathmandu, nepal in 1982 to tibetan refugee parents. rigdol’s work has been exhibited in important galleries and museums in europe and north america, including the metropolitan museum of art. this event is sponsored by the himalaya program, the contemporary tibetan studies program, and the department of art history, visual art and theory .
rob mcbroom, a minneapolis - based artist, holds the distinction of being the only federal duck stamp competitor to adorn his abstract works with glitter, rhinestones and communist insignia. he has been antagonizing his fellow duck stamp entrants with his unorthodox paintings for many years. he is a subject in the film the million dollar duck .
we are delighted that hope cooke, former gyalmo (or queen consort) of sikkim, has agreed to join us from new york for a discussion about the making and reception of the film. hope is a widely published and award - winning author, and was a visiting instructor of history at sarah lawrence college and yale in 1987 .
dhaulagiri, nanga parbat & broad peak are 3 of the world' s 14 highest summits. french alpinist, jean - christophe lafaille aims to ascent all three in a period of two months. the film takes us on a dramatic and eventful journey that starts in nepal and finishes in pakistan while exploring the mind and soul of a devoted mountaineer .
wanderlust of both the creative and physical varieties, drives canadian photographer reuben krabbe to find unique ways to capture the world of action sports. his obsession with seeking different light, angles and objectives has landed his photos on covers of skier, mtb pro and powder. this obsession is also at the heart of the story that drives the film eclipse .
diwakar acharya' s talk will tackle the questions of why the creative potential of nepal’s resources, natural as well as human, is not unleashed, and why in spite of some positive outcome of political awareness, the leadership everybody wished for is still lacking. this event is sponsored by the himalaya program, the centre for indian and south asian research, and the department of asian studies. reception at 4, talk starts 4: 30 .
a personal film about the incredible ascent, of the elusive summit of annapurna on may 16, 2002, via a wildly committing traverse of the east ridge. from the satellite peak of singu chuli to the main west summit of annapurna and back, jean - christophe lafaille and basque climber alberto inurrategi negotiate 10 horizontal miles of complex terrain above 24, 000 feet .
variously described as a western, a love story and an adventure tale, “himalaya” is about a chieftain, tinle, whose son dies during a yak caravan in the himalayas. proud and driven by conviction, tinle insists he lead the caravan until his young grandson is old enough to inherit the duties of the time - honored tradition. a challenge ensues, between a rebellious young villager and the elder. what follows is a struggle against nature, pride and ego .
himalaya
tells the story of a village, which since time immemorial, has engaged in a winter trek to bring salt to its people and send out goods to be traded. the journeys are conducted by yak caravans. for many years the old chief, tinle, led the treks, but he retired in favor of his son. now his son is dead, his body brought back to the village by karma, who wants to take his place at the head of the caravans .
less than a year later, we were back in the region for an unrelated (or so we thought) film trip to bangladesh, where we met up with a group of geologists and students from bangladeshi and american universities. when landing in dhaka, one descends to a billiard - table flat landscape, a plain of sediments eroded from the himalaya range by mighty rivers like the ganges and brahmaputra. it’s not a place where a geologist would expect to find major earthquake faults. but history documents two megaquakes here in the last 500 years. when we visited in 2013, geologists had yet to put a rock hammer to a major fault in bangladesh; they still haven’t. while some smaller faults crop out at the surface, most, including all the most important ones, are blind, buried deep under himalayan muds. the hunt was turning to the deployment of seismometers, gps antennae and drill rigs .
grain. despite tinle’s edict, karma sets out to follow the path on his own; when tinle’s younger son norbu (karma tensing nyama lama) declines his father’s request to lead the journey, the aging leader takes it upon himself to lead the yaks across the mountains, with tinle and karma meeting along the way. himalaya: l’enfance d’un chef was shot on location in the himalayas, with a tibetan cast and french camera crew, resulting in some dazzling footage of the rugged, unspoiled beauty of the mountain ranges .
himalaya - caravan - l' enfance d' un chef (film d' eric valli) - la mort de lhapka (bruno coulais) urltoken - urltoken _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ réfléchissons ensemble - let' s think together france népal média फ्रान्स नेपाल मेडिया le collectif france népal nepal france friendship society नेपाल फ्रान्स मैत्री संघ binod khakurel baudelaire, président info @ urltoken / collectif @ urltoken + 33 1 45 80 47 69 / + 33 7 64 20 24 96 (paris) + 977 9841 641 850 (kathmandu) http: / / www. urltoken http: / / www. urltoken urltoken urltoken urltoken urltoken - - - - - - - traduction / interprète cours de népali - learn nepali info @ urltoken - 07 64 20 24 96 société internationale des amis de charles baudelaire urltoken urltoken urltoken - -
là, tout n' est qu' ordre et beauté, luxe, calme et volupté ...
( charles baudelaire )
directed by éric valli; written (in nepali and tibetan, with english subtitles) by mr. valli and olivier dazat with the collaboration of jean - claude guillebaud, louis gardel, nathalie azoulai and jacques perrin; directors of photography, éric guichard and jean - paul meurisse; music by bruno coulais; produced by mr. perrin and christophe barratier; released by kino international. running time: 104 minutes. this film is not rated .
it is astonishing to think that lives like this are still possible in the 21st century. we are less surprised when we see such treks reflecting modern realities - - as in
a time for drunken horses
( 2000), about the kurdish people of iran, who use mule caravans to transport contraband truck tires into iraq. we suspect that the story of
himalaya
re - creates a time that has now ended, but no: such caravans still exist, and were the subject of
the saltmen of tibet ,
a 1997 documentary by ulrike koch .
eric valli: sure, working as a photographer for 18 years now has been great teaching for me. people say, “eric, we see so many of your pictures in the film; we see your style. ” sure, but it’s my first feature film. i had a big meeting with the two directors of photography (eric guichard and jean - paul meurisse) and we looked at all of my pictures. and we said that for certain scenes i wanted certain light, and for this other scene i want certain framing, very often similar to my pictures. but it wasn’t my work to be behind the camera; it was to be director. i had total trust with the two d. o. p. s, who did a fantastic job. so i let them be free, very often sticking an eye in the viewfinder, but mainly focusing on the biggest challenge of this film, which was acting. because these people not only have never seen a movie camera in their life, but most of these people have never even seen a film in their life. what was acting for them? i speak their language. i had spent two years with them before, so i knew these people and i built up a fantastic relationship with them. but i was asking them to do things that they had never thought about. it’s within their tibetan tradition to make a testimony of their history. when an important person dies in their community, you write a biography. so, somehow they understood the process of it. we weren’t using a pen on paper anymore. we were using a camera, a tape recorder and a crew. but it was the same thing — we were making a testimony of their own life — and this they understood very well. but they didn’t understand what was acting .
ace kvale, a photographer who has captured extreme environments and rich cultures around the world, first met dr. geoff tabin — co - founder of the himalayan cataract project — on assignment for outside magazine. what grew from that encounter was a lasting friendship and a photo project that has spanned years. kvale has been documenting the work of tabin, whose nonprofit aims to eradicate blindness by setting up eye surgery clinics in sub - saharan africa and the himalaya, for more than a decade. the result, kvale says, represents some of the most important work of his life .
mr. moti lal nepali, a dalit activist from nepal, will give a talk about the socio - political status of dalits in nepal. a short film, yash kumar’s bato muniko phool – the prologue (flowers under the path – the prologue), will be screened, revealing the daily struggles of dalits in nepali villages today. dr. drona rasali will explain nepaldalitinfo network’s role in fostering awareness of dalit issues in nepal. talk starts 4: 30 .
in the aftermath of the quake, we obtained additional financial support to incorporate the lessons learned from the gorkha earthquake into outreach materials to accompany our documentary project. in 2016, we returned to nepal to film the conditions on the ground a year after the quake struck. among numerous scenes, we shot footage of thickets of steel rebar poking from new construction sites all over kathmandu valley, as well as the tilingatar higher secondary school, which survived thanks to being retrofitted before the earthquake .
keith ladzinski is an adventure photographer and filmmaker whose work has taken him to remote reaches of all seven continents — from the forests of south africa to the beaches of iceland. along with contributing to such magazines as outside, discover and men’s journal, he is the co - founder of 3 strings productions in boulder, colorado. he was recently assigned to document the effects of climate change in national parks for national geographic and has a film, poumaka, premiering in this year’s festival .
in a remote village in the himalayas, the wheat crop isn' t sufficient to feed the people; salt has to be transported across the mountains and sold in order to survive. on the latest expedition, the old chief' s son has died; tinle, the chief, refuses to accept karma, the obvious choice for leader, instead insisting his small grandson, pasang, be the new village headman – this leads to a conflict during the next, dangerous, trek across the mountains. the story of himalaya is a timeless on. french director eric valli tells it like a legend, and it' s one he knows well – a travel - writer and short filmmaker, he obviously loves this remote part of the world and the people who live here. it' s a simple but quite affecting saga – the film' s main pleasures lie in the way it looks. this is definitely a big screen experiences – the images of this mountainous landscape are always impressive, especially in one notable scene – evoking the wages of fear – in which the villagers, taking a short cut on a crumbling narrow track high above an azure blue lake, find themselves in considerable danger. the mostly non - professional actors give totally convincing performances .
set in the mountains of tibet near nepal, this film begins with mountaineer karma (gurgon kyap) returning from a long journey with bad news: the son of tinle (thilen lhondup), the village leader, died in the midst of the trek, leaving behind a wife, pema (lhapka tsamchoe), and a son, pasang (karma wangiel). tinle cannot forgive karma for the death of his son, and he banishes him from an upcoming voyage, in which a yak caravan will bring a load of salt across the mountains to be exchanged for
the hotel himalaya is on a quiet side street, yet centrally located in frankfurt. both the trade fair and to the railway station, it takes just a few minutes. also the city center can be reached quickly from here. you can reach us with regional and long distance services, as well as by tram and subway (s - bahn and u - bahn) from the station “hauptbahnhof”. even the remote bus terminal is located directly at the main station (south side). from the main train station by bus number 37 go on to stop “hafenstraße”. from there you can reach the hotel on foot after about 150m. for our guests arriving by car, on - site parking is available for a fee .
there are many more amazing geologic surprises centered on the mighty himalayas beyond what i’ve shared here and that we are very excited to present in our film. we are also thrilled to feature some of the geoscientists who have been working to better understand the nature of the powerful tectonic collision of plates lying below a large portion of earth’s human population. the scientists’ determined efforts are not only uncovering some of earth’s wondrous inner workings in this region, but are also illuminating the extreme dangers these processes pose, so that as few people as possible are injured or killed in the next massive earthquake .
much of the film is simply pictorial, as karma and tinle make rival journeys, and tinle ominously squints at the clear sky and foresees snow. there is one passage of pure suspense, as part of a narrow mountain path slips away, and the yaks and their masters have to traverse a dangerous stretch; we are reminded of similar situations involving trucks in
the wages of fear
and
sorcerer .
the actors are not experienced and sometimes simply seem to be playing men very much like themselves, but we are not much concerned with subtle drama here. the real movie takes place in our minds, as we think about these people who share the planet with us right now, and yet lead unimaginably different lives. would it be a trial or a blessing to be a member of a community like this? that would depend, i imagine, on whether your view of the world has expanded to encompass more than villages and salt journeys. there must be something deeply satisfying about knowing your place in an ancient social structure and fitting into it seamlessly. so i thought as i watched this film, although it did not make me want to lead a yak caravan .
in the caste - based social structure of nepal, at least one - seventh of the population, so - called “dalits”, have experienced discrimination, marginalization, and oppression for centuries. mr. moti lal nepali, a dalit activist from nepal, will give a talk about the socio - political status of dalits in nepal. a short film, yash kumar’s bato muniko phool – the prologue (flowers under the path – the prologue), will be screened, revealing the daily struggles of dalits in nepali villages today. dr. drona rasali will explain nepaldalitinfo network’s role in fostering awareness of dalit issues in nepal .
valli: oh, it’s a great love story! why such a woman? why such a man? it’s always difficult to explain. i started to travel when i was very young and i got hooked to this life, to this life of a nomad; and learning so much, being very curious and learning so many ways of life. i was in search in our differences. and now i’ve made this film, which is about our similarities. i spent a lot of time in afghanistan, the middle east, india and then i discovered nepal and i fell in love. basically that’s it; it was very simple .
this conundrum has given rise to several scientific questions. what is the origin of the stress in the crust that is capable of setting off megaquakes here? and what geologic forces lifted mongolia high above “normal” midcontinent elevations? some theories credited the collision of the indo - australian and eurasian tectonic plates as both the source of the stress and the uplift, even though it is 2, 000 kilometers to the south, farther than the distance from kansas to new york. as we filmed across mongolia over several weeks, diane and i thought it would be great to film that far - off collision, if we could only obtain the needed funding .
later in the interview, bishal expressed acute concern for the people of nepal. he and his colleagues had accumulated data that led them to predict that the next big himalayan earthquake could rupture the main himalaya thrust fault in central nepal at any time. bishal has long been educating the people of nepal about earthquake hazards through the media and public lectures, and he has urged officials to act on behalf of public safety. these were brave actions, as people are often loath to hear or heed such warnings about dangers from natural and uncontrollable forces. thankfully, the efforts bore some fruit. the majority of buildings in nepal were not strong enough to withstand strong earthquake shaking until bishal and his colleagues convinced officials to enact new building codes, which helped keep some new buildings standing, and the people inside them alive, during the gorkha quake .
valli: the two main characters are my two best friends, both from the monastery. my one friend is a great artist and lama. and even though i speak their language, i know how to load their yaks, i have spent three years of my life out there, i am still an outsider. and when i saw this great artist, i just thought, hey, this is a way for me to make an insider testimony. and i asked him and his father, “would you like to travel with me? and instead of painting gods and demons, would you paint your people? ” so he left his monastery for the first time and he came with me and he discovered life. and when i met thinlen almost 18 or 20 years ago, he is exactly as the character tinle is: he’s the chief of his village, he’s a very charismatic guy. in real life thinlen’s brother was murdered in a feud with another family, but in the film, it was his brother who falls from the cliff. so it is based on real, epic events; real characters. and i think that’s what gives a lot of power to this film. because these people — norbou is a real lama, thinlen is a real chief and karma is a real cowboy. every single thing these people do is real. i didn’t have to teach them. it came out; they sweated it out .
valli: there are some great lessons, like when tinle asks his son, “why did you come with me? ” he says, “one day my teacher (lama) told me, “whenever there are two trails open in front of you, always choose the hardest one; the one which will squeeze the best out of you. ” this sentence was told to me about 12 or 13 years ago, and when it was told to me by this old man in a cave, i just thought, what is the meaning of life if you don’t give it your best? what is the meaning of life if you don’t realize your dreams; if you don’t try? it’s a film about power, courage and tolerance .
producer diane lamacchia and i were traveling with karl and his group of scientists, students and local support crews to shoot footage of the expedition as it traversed remote central mongolia on a quest to better understand this land’s many geologic mysteries. the funding we had at the time from the national science foundation covered filming and production for a short video about the research project. we had no idea that this trip, taken in 2011, would be the first of six to asia to shoot footage for what would become a full - length television documentary, “the himalaya connection, ” to begin airing on pbs in north america later this year. nor did we imagine then that the documentary’s story would center on the great himalayan mountains — a geologic feature that offers daily benefits to 45 percent of the world’s people — and on the earth scientists who, through their research, are working to protect many thousands of those people from the region’s natural hazards. what follows are a few highlights of our long production journey, and some of the things we learned along the way .
while in the region, we also took a short flight, skimming past mount everest, to film in neighboring bhutan. like nepal, bhutan’s entire length straddles the main himalayan thrust fault. that stretch of the fault has not produced a large earthquake since the 1500s, leaving a very worrisome seismic gap. building codes calling for a measure of earthquake resistance were enacted in the late 1990s in the capital, thimphu, and new buildings going up looked to be solidly built in the beautiful city. but what about beyond thimphu? most houses in the country are constructed in the traditional rammed - earth style, in which outer walls are made of soils pounded and packed by hand between wooden forms. the houses are big, typically three stories. engineers are concerned that these structures offer little defense against horizontal ground shaking. will upgraded building methods, codes and retrofitting take hold in bhutan before their thrust fault slips again ?
it was during this himalayan trip, in 2012, that diane and i began talking about creating, in addition to the short film, a television documentary centered on this extraordinary mountain range. in this expanded documentary, mongolia’s uplifted terrain and earthquakes would feature as far - flung artifacts of the tremendous geologic powerhouse created by the collision of the indian and asian plates. but, as usual, we faced the hurdle of raising funds to turn the vision into reality. it was like gazing up at the steep, hand - laid stone steps we encountered on the first day of our himalayan trek — more than 3, 000 of them. it’d take time, but we were confident we could get up the steps eventually with a lot of effort. we felt the same way with acquiring the significant level of funding needed for our envisioned television documentary, although it would take a lot more time than a steep climb through the mountains .
this is the third film about mountain climbing i' ve seen in little under a year. first a documentary called meru, then the imax exclusive release called everest. now the koreans tackle the subject. interesting enough, story wise i feel the himalayas is a mix of both movies. the best korean mountaineer goes up a mountain to find the remains of his student who froze to death. based on true events the story focus on mountaineer, hong - gil um, a family man who loves to climb mountains. the movie has a lot to it as we go over hong - gil um preparing for mountain climbing, training others for it, and what happens after it' s all over. the himalayas tries to be a tear jerker. it does have it' s moments, but overall it tries hard and gets nothing. it' s effective in making you not want to go up the mountain. the harsh weather was oh too real, and the visuals sometimes due what the story itself is unable. the movie is just ok, no where near outstanding .
i’d ridden on a breaking tectonic plate before. on oct. 17, 1989, i was editing a film at the u. s. geological survey in palo alto, calif. , when the floor turned to jell - o. rock - sample cabinets stacked to the ceiling flew open, shooting dislodged samples at me. gneiss marked with catalog numbers piled up and blocked my escape through the door, so i just stood there, clutching the editing machines as they tried to dance off the table, and watched the window bow in and out as if made of rubber. miraculously, the glass held, but when i finally got a chance to evacuate, i had to dash light - footed over the chards of many shattered panes in the rest of the building. before the magnitude - 7. 1 loma prieta earthquake, i thought temblors were exciting and interesting. i had experienced many earthquakes of magnitude 2 and 3, and a few of magnitude 4. ever since loma prieta, however, i dread them. and i can relate to the lingering fear that nepalis now carry with them since the magnitude - 7. 8 gorkha earthquake struck on april 25, 2015 .
with our trip to nepal and bhutan a success, we were in great shape regarding our story and footage needs. diane plunged into scripting and editing, and we worked with a sense of urgency to assemble our final product and get the story out. that’s when the study by some of our film’s “characters, ” mike steckler, humayun akhter, leonardo seeber and others, was published in nature geoscience in mid - 2016. what they found was incredible, and not great news for the roughly 140 million people in the region who were sitting on, or within 100 kilometers of, a buried and locked megathrust fault capable of generating a megaquake, perhaps very soon — or perhaps not for hundreds of years. so important was this discovery that we decided to give it center stage in our documentary, although it meant a great deal of rewriting and re - editing. meanwhile, the publication jolted the media in the region. news pieces with diverse interpretations of the paper’s conclusions appeared. for instance, a television news story in the state of assam, in northeast india, reported that the researchers predicted that a huge earthquake was going to strike on a specific day, july 17, just six days after the nature geoscience article was published. this caused widespread fear. people could not sleep for days, and many packed their bags for an emergency. in another example, a newspaper piece in india reported that the megaquake could result in the deaths of tens of millions of people. as filmmakers, we wanted to produce a video right away to help the scientists tell the correct story. our solution was to quickly produce a short video, “giant earthquakes in bangladesh and india? , ” and give it to the scientists, who immediately began screening it in india and bangladesh. it has been translated into bengali and mizo, and can be viewed on youtube at: urltoken.
himalaya ( french : himalaya : l'enfance d'un chef ) is a 1999 film directed by eric valli and was funded through france-based corporations . it was the first nepalese film to be nominated in the best foreign film category at the 72nd academy awards . himalaya is a story set against the backdrop of the nepalese himalayas . at an altitude of five thousand metres in the remote mountain region of dolpa , himalaya is the story of villagers who take a caravan of yaks across the mountains , carrying rock salt from the high plateau down to the lowlands to trade for grain . an annual event , the caravan provides the grain that the villagers depend on to survive the winter . the film unfolds as a story of rivalry based on misunderstanding and distrust , between the aging chief and the young daring herdsman , who is both a friend and a rival to the chief 's family , as they struggle for leadership of the caravan . the film is a narrative on the both traditions and the impermanent nature of human struggle to retain and express power in the face of the gods . " the gods triumph " is the call that echoes at the end of the film and expresses the balancing of karmic destinies . the extreme environment of the himalayas is magnificently contrasted to the delicacy of humanity and the beauty of tibetan culture . himalaya was shot in widescreen over nine months on location in a region that can only be reached on foot , with all but two characters played by real chiefs , lamas and local villagers . director eric valli has lived in nepal since 1983 and is also a photographer and author . his work is regularly published in national geographic , geo and life magazines . the film depicts not only the life style of the upper dolpo people of the mid western uphills of nepal but also their traditional customs , for example celestial burial . 
himalaya (french: himalaya: l'enfance d'un chef) is a 1999 film directed by eric valli and was funded through france-based corporations. it was the first nepalese film to be nominated in the best foreign film category at the 72nd academy awards. himalaya is a story set against the backdrop of the nepalese himalayas. at an altitude of five thousand metres in the remote mountain region of dolpa, himalaya is the story of villagers who take a caravan of yaks across the mountains, carrying rock salt from the high plateau down to the lowlands to trade for grain. an annual event, the caravan provides the grain that the villagers depend on to survive the winter. the film unfolds as a story of rivalry based on misunderstanding and distrust, between the aging chief and the young daring herdsman, who is both a friend and a rival to the chief's family, as they struggle for leadership of the caravan. the film is a narrative on the both traditions and the impermanent nature of human struggle to retain and express power in the face of the gods. " the gods triumph " is the call that echoes at the end of the film and expresses the balancing of karmic destinies. the extreme environment of the himalayas is magnificently contrasted to the delicacy of humanity and the beauty of tibetan culture. himalaya was shot in widescreen over nine months on location in a region that can only be reached on foot, with all but two characters played by real chiefs, lamas and local villagers. director eric valli has lived in nepal since 1983 and is also a photographer and author. his work is regularly published in national geographic, geo and life magazines. the film depicts not only the life style of the upper dolpo people of the mid western uphills of nepal but also their traditional customs, for example celestial burial.
himalaya (french: himalaya: l'enfance d'un chef) is a 1999 film directed by eric valli and was funded through france-based corporations. it was the first nepalese film to be nominated in the best foreign film category at the 72nd academy awards. himalaya is a story set against the backdrop of the nepalese himalayas. at an altitude of five thousand metres in the remote mountain region of dolpa, himalaya is the story of villagers who take a caravan of yaks across the mountains, carrying rock salt from the high plateau down to the lowlands to trade for grain. an annual event, the caravan provides the grain that the villagers depend on to survive the winter. the film unfolds as a story of rivalry based on misunderstanding and distrust, between the aging chief and the young daring herdsman, who is both a friend and a rival to the chief's family, as they struggle for leadership of the caravan. the film is a narrative on the both traditions and the impermanent nature of human struggle to retain and express power in the face of the gods. " the gods triumph " is the call that echoes at the end of the film and expresses the balancing of karmic destinies. the extreme environment of the himalayas is magnificently contrasted to the delicacy of humanity and the beauty of tibetan culture. himalaya was shot in widescreen over nine months on location in a region that can only be reached on foot, with all but two characters played by real chiefs, lamas and local villagers. director eric valli has lived in nepal since 1983 and is also a photographer and author. his work is regularly published in national geographic, geo and life magazines. the film depicts not only the life style of the upper dolpo people of the mid western uphills of nepal but also their traditional customs, for example celestial burial.