The Sun Behind the Clouds, a documentary on the Tibetan freedom struggle, will premiere on Wednesday, March 31, 2010 at the Film Forum in New York City.
The film was recently at the center of a controversy at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, where screenings of two Chinese feature films were pulled by the Chinese government in protest of the festival’s exhibition of The Sun Behind the Clouds. Directed by Tibetan filmmaker Tenzing Sonam and his partner, Ritu Sarin, the film updates the struggle for Tibetan independence by focusing upon the March 2008 demonstrations against Chinese rule, the largest since the 1959 takeover of that nation, and the resulting split among Tibetans themselves.
The Dalai Lama, living in exile in Northern India, is interviewed extensively during this turbulent period and given the opportunity to explicate his “Middle Way Approach,” a compromise position essentially giving up the goal of Tibet’s independence in exchange for cultural and social autonomy. A younger generation of Tibetans who are devoted to the Dalai Lama, but who nonetheless feel his solution is ineffective, appear in the film, detailing their more militant position. This is the first film to show the Dalai Lama addressing the political complexity of the Tibet issue, both in his homeland and within the exile community.
Click here for tickets, or visit the film’s website.
