Tibet’s Struggle For Freedom Comes To DVD

By Glenn Thomas

Tibetan filmmaker Tenzing Sonam and co-director Ritu Sarin gained unprecedented personal access to the Dalai Lama for a controversial and provocative look at Tibet’s ceaseless fight for justice and recognition. Their documentary on the Dalai Lama’s ceaseless struggle for justice and recognition for the Tibetan people, The Sun Behind the Clouds, arrived on DVD just months after Chinese authorities attempted to pull the film from the prestigious Palm Springs International Film Festival. Released in the spring to critical acclaim in over a dozen cities nationwide, The Sun Behind the Clouds focuses on the pivotal and particularly tumultuous events of 2008.

From the four month march of exiled Tibetans to the Indo-Tibet border and Buddhist monks’ protests in Lhasa to the Beijing Olympics and the contentious talks between the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama’s emissaries, the film uncovers the growing rifts between younger Tibetans and their most respected spiritual leader.

While His Holiness advocates for political autonomy within China rather than secession from it, a younger generation within Tibet has grown impatient and begun to chart a more confrontational course. Following the Dalai Lama’s political life with unprecedented personal access, Tibetan filmmaker Tenzing Sonam and co-director Ritu Sarin (directors of Dreaming Lhasa, executive produced by Richard Gere) bring an impassioned focus to the multiple complexities in finding a peaceful solution based on compromise and dialogue.

Zeitgeist’s DVD release of The Sun Behind the Clouds features a new anamorphic transfer, created from hi-def elements. Extras include extended interview excerpts with the Dalai Lama as well as deleted scenes, a theatrical trailer and optional English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired.

For more on the film, please visit
http://thesunbehindtheclouds.com.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 7th, 2011 at 5:56 pm and is filed under Entertainment, Vol. 20. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.