Nepal

“Rituals of Resistance” looks at the evolving generational responses by pacifist Tibetans under 65 years of Chinese occupation. Through first-hand oral accounts by three Tibetan exiles living in disparate parts of the world, the film traces the three paths of resistance from the active and the brutal, to the realm of the symbolic and sacrificial. The film creatively explores the history of resistance through each subject’s relation to the medium of their era.

After the Chinese invasion in 1950, a devout monk turns to violence and becomes a guerrilla leader, launching pinprick raids from his base in Nepal. An immigrant mother in California, who follows the Dalai Lama’s Middle Path of nonviolence, defies Chinese border restrictions to reunite with her family after 30 years of separation. A student-activist in India, who grew up under Chinese-controlled Tibet, turns to suicide protest.

Each individual grapples with his or her Buddhist beliefs at the face of national and political imperatives.

Interspersed between each portrait, the Tibetan American director reflects on each mode of resistance as he wanders the American frontier that resembles his lost homeland.

10/5  13:00

Chhaupadi sheds are common in mid- and far-western villages in Nepal. During their menstruation periods, women stay in these sheds which are unhygienic and unsafe, putting them at risk to their health and lives. People believe that women are impure during chhau and will make everything they touch impure. The film is the story of the women who have suffered due to unjustifiable traditions and practices. There is an urgent need to bring about a change in their hard and challenging lives.

Buraunse is a remote Himalayan village in Humla Districts of Nepal. As in some the himayan districts that share border with tibet, the institution of polyandary is still practiced by trh Lama community there. Adhering to the age-old Tibetan Buddhist tradition, brothers marry a common wife. Over the recent years, however younger generation exposed to modern reluctant to follow the tradition . The elderly are naturally unhappy. Hence, there is a conflict between the older and younger generations; between fathers and sons.

This film depicts the Gonya festival among the Tamang ethnic group in the Kathmandu valley of Nepal. The celebration for Gonya revolves around the performance of the bonbo, an equivalent for the more universal term “shaman” in Tamang culture. The film consists of three parts: The first part shows how the Gonya is incorporated within the overarching tradition of Janai Purnima, a Hindu religious festival, and the way it is celebrated locally in a unique collaboration involving shamans. The second part shows how shamanistic beliefs are experienced and maintained communally by focusing on a young shaman and his family holding a small ritual in a village during the Gonya. The third part follows a group of shamans led by one master shaman on the Gonya day, and demonstrates how they create a “collective effervescence” in this religious festival.