8/22/11

'Tibet In Song' Film At St. Lawrence, Plus Q&A With Director

CANTON - The 2009 award-winning film Tibet In Song will be screened on Wednesday, September 7, at 7 p.m. in Eben Holden at St. Lawrence University, followed by a question-and-answer session with director Ngawang Choephel. The event, made possible through the Alcoa Foundation Cultural Affairs Program Fund," is open to the public, free of charge.

The film introduces audiences to Tibetan folk music, and reveals how Chinese policies have systematically tried to destroy it since the takeover of Tibet in 1949. Choephel's personal story as filmmaker-turned-political-prisoner guides the film, while the Tibetans he films bravely speak out to the world to proclaim the richness and beauty of their musical heritage.

Choephel earned a degree in Tibetan music from the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts in Dharamsala, India. Upon arriving in the West, in 1994, as a Fulbright Fellow at Middlebury College, he studied video production and international music in preparation for the production of Tibet In Song. After being arrested by Chinese authorities in Tibet during filming, he spent six and a half years in prison in Tibet, which earned him the Courage of Conscience Award from Peace Abbey in 2002. Upon his release from prison that same year, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Arts Degree from Middlebury.

The Arts Collaborative at St. Lawrence