Tibet in Song (2009/2010)
Lhamo one of the characters of TIBET IN SONG, explaining the costume which her grandmother sent from Tibet. Photo: David Huang. TIBET IN SONG. Guge Productions.
Writer:
Co-Writer:
Producer:
Executive Producer:
- Anne Corcos
Editor:
Consulting Editor:
Co-Producer:
Music:
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Opened: 09/24/2010 Limited
| Screenings | 09/24/2010 | |
| Cinema Village... | 09/24/2010 - 10/21/2010 | 28 days |
| Music Box Thea... | 12/10/2010 - 12/16/2010 | 7 days |
| DVD | 10/18/2011 |
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Genre: Documentary (In English and Tibetan with subtitles)
Rated: Unrated
Synopsis
In the West, surrounded by iPods, instant downloads and an ever-changing onslaught of new music and performers, a simple song is something easily taken for granted. Folk music exists for many Westerners as another musical brand or label -- something to distinguish a certain kind of song from thousands of others.
In the East, in Tibet, a large country the size of Western Europe, folk songs serve as the connective tissue between regions, passed down in the oral tradition through an increasingly fragmented country and region, much of which remains under harsh Communist Chinese rule after 50 years of occupation.
Tibet was a sovereign nation for thousands of years, with its own music, heritage, laws and customs. Its folk songs convey and preserve ethnic, religious and philosophical customs that date to primeval times -- in effect, the DNA shaping an endangered people's identity, one that has been rigidly co-opted by China's "patriotic reeducation" of Tibetan citizens through its dissemination of nationalistic pop songs designed to wipe out Tibetan culture through a rigid, unwavering system of control.
TIBET IN SONG examines what happens when one man, a Tibetan native who fled his country of origin for India at the age of two, returns home to capture the music of his people -- like lightning in a bottle -- before all is lost to the ashes of time and history.
Director and producer Ngawang Choepel was arrested in Tibet on charges of espionage by Chinese authorities in 1995. Accused of collecting sensitive material on China, thereby endangering its national security, he was sentenced to 18 years in prison, serving nearly seven years before his highly publicized release in 2002.
TIBET IN SONG is Ngawang's story, but it also gives voice to the thousands of Tibetans engaged in the fight for the life of their cultural heritage. For the first time, voices never before captured on film dare to speak out against Chinese policies in the name of artistic freedom. Sometimes all it takes is a song...
Trailers
