Tibet in Song

"Tibetan dance and song are twins, impossible to be separated from each other. If they sing, they are sure to dance, and they dance while singing." So says a Chinese tourist Website, which may explain why the Chinese authorities have so aggressively tried to replace indigenous Tibetan folk with treacly Chinese songs that laud the “advances” China has brought to Tibet. The importance of their own music to Tibetans is only one of the threads that this compelling film follows: The other one, sadly, is the life of the director, Ngawang Choepel, who was arrested by Chinese authorities for making a film about Tibetan folk music. Held in prison and tortured, Choepel was released after seven years and able to make this compelling and essential film that will certainly enter the canon of films about Tibet. —DH