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Tibetan Video
Archive Project Documenting a culture on the cusp of change,
TVAP creates original documentaries
as well as providing archival video
of Tibetan subjects throughout the world.
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The
Tibetan Video Archive Project (TVAP) provides professional-quality
footage on Tibetan subjects to a variety of non-profit organizations
for purposes of cross-cultural education. Both archival
footage and finished documentaries are available, covering
Tibetans in Asia and North America. Project director Debra
Denker---videographer, social documentarian, and writer---has
shot extensive footage on Buddhist and Bon subjects in India
and Nepal in early 2004, Eastern Tibet in May-June, 2005,
and central Tibet in August, 2006. CURRENT
PROJECTS
We Are All Mothers, newly released in August, 2007, documents an intrepid group of nine American women---health care professionals, energy healers, and Buddhist students---as they journey to Gargon, a remote area of Kham, eastern Tibet. There they run a clinic, ask villagers their concerns and hopes, and offer midwifery training to semi-nomadic women who traditionally have given birth on the grasslands, sometimes cutting the umbilical cord with a stone.
TVAP’s Project Director Debra Denker participated in the May, 2005 trip as both filmmaker and healer, and Perception board member and medical anthropologist Tara Lumpkin, PhD, wrote a comprehensive needs assessment (see link below).
Offerings
of Flowers is a short memento of the joyous throwing
of myriads of marigolds in celebration of long life prayers
for Kyabgon Chetsang Rinpoche, the lineage holder of the
Drikung Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. The ceremony took
place during the Monkey Year Teachings in Lumbini, Nepal
in March, 2004 (see below to VIEW NOW).
Loving
Mother, Bon Children, a short film on Tibetan Bon-pos
living in exile in Dolanji, India completed in early 2005
(see below).
Light
on the Roof of the World: Healing Touch in Tibet, a film-in-progress about teaching Healing Touch in Lhasa
(see below).
ARCHIVAL
FOOTAGE Amnye
Machen, a pilgrimage circumambulating a sacred mountain
in the Amdo region of Eastern Tibet Vajrasattva
Drupchen, documenting ceremonies at Ontul Rinpoche's
monastery in Riwalsar (Tso Pema), India
Drikung
Kagyu teachings in Chino Valley, Arizona, and Lumbini,
Nepal
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We Are All Mothers (running time 23:36)
According to Tibetan Buddhism, all sentient beings have been each other’s mothers at some time on the endless wheel of karma and reincarnation. Thus we must have compassion, and treat every single being as our own mother, and our own child.
Released in August, 2007, this is the story of an intrepid group of health care professionals, holistic healers, and Buddhist students who braved many obstacles to journey to a remote high-altitude area of Kham, in eastern Tibet. At the invitation of His Eminence Garchen Rinpoche, who was concerned about extremely high rates of maternal and infant mortality in his home village, Gargon, the team of nine American women ran a daily clinic, conducted midwifery training, and interviewed villagers about their concerns and hopes. The multi-talented team included nurses, midwife trainers, acupuncturists, holistic healers, and a medical anthropologist.
This visually rich film documents their work with reverence, affection, and humor. Watch Tibetan woman, some semi-nomadic yak-herders and others educated young schoolteachers, as they learn how to be skilled birth attendants in a region where, by cultural tradition, women have given birth out on the grasslands, sometimes cutting the umbilical cord with a stone. See how an alternate future is being created as the women of Gargon become empowered through knowledge of safe birthing practices.
A co-production with Rainbow Lotus Productions.
LINKS
Loving
Mother, Bon Children (running time 36:44)
This film interweaves the stories of producer/director Debra
Denker, a longtime supporter of a Tibetan Bon-po orphanage
in Dolanji, India, and Lama Tempa Duktee, a young monk who
grew up there in the 80's. When Debra and Tempa meet in
Santa Fe, they discover that Debra had taken photos of Tempa
as a boy. These spark Tempa's reminisces, interwoven with
Debra's return to Dolanji in 2004 against the golden warp
of the all-pervasive presence of the Bon goddess Chamma,
the Loving Mother. The film has been aired on Channel 10
in Anchorage, Alaska, and an excerpt was shown at the Taos
Mountain Film Festival in September, 2005. (in association
with Global Focus Films; available on DVD or VHS, by donation). |
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Novice
monks at the Bon Children's
Welfare Center, Dolanji, India |
The
ritual masked Cham dance helps
to usher in the New Year |
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Ritual
dances inside the temple beseech
the Bon protectors to remove obstacles
before the Tibetan New Year, Losar |
Children
at the Bon Children's Home
Dolanji, India |
Offerings
of Flowers (running time 3:00)
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Ladakhi
woman prays for long life of
Kyabgon Chetsang Rinpoche. |
See
the VIDEO - 3 minute clip |
Light
on the Roof of the World (work in progress)
In August, 2006, Perception teamed with Unknown Sages,
a Canadian organization that facilitates Healing Touch
volunteer service travel to South and Himalayan Asia,
to co-sponsor a holistic health team’s journey
to central Tibet to teach Healing Touch and offer treatments
to those in need. TVAP project director Debra Denker,
a Certified Healing Touch Practitioner and Instructor,
traveled with three Healing Touch students to Lhasa,
Tibet’s capital. There the team presented Healing
Touch to the directors of the Mentsikhang---the Hospital
of Traditional Tibetan Medicine---and the Tibetan Medical
College, where Tibetan doctors study this ancient system.
If invited, the team hopes to return in future to teach
at these institutions. Debra taught Healing Touch to
Tibetan staff members of One H.E.A.R.T., a U.S.-based
NGO that conducts outreach and training in safe birthing
and maternal-child health care. She was assisted by
Tekla Fulton, R.N., founder of Unknown Sages, and by
Page Herring, a longtime midwife and fisherman from
Alaska. Ugyen Tsewang, a Tibetan born in Sikkim who
is studying Healing Touch, contributed his expertise
as translator and facilitator. All the team members
participated in photo and video documentation of the
teaching as well as their travels throughout central
Tibet, where they offered treatments to a variety of
people ranging from Buddhist nuns to babies to men and
women of all ages.
LINKS
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| Tekla
Fulton, a retired nurse from Canada, explains Healing Touch
to a Buddhist nun. |
Nam-tso,
the Sky Lake, is a mystical place,
long used for spiritual retreats. |
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| Staff
members of One H.E.A.R.T. completed the first half of
Healing Touch Level 1 and received certificates. |
Pasang
Tsering, Tibet Program Director for One H.E.A.R.T., practices
Mind Clearing on Pema Choezom, manager of the organization's
PAVOT program (Patient and Village Outreach Tibet). |
Additional
funding is needed for distribution of existing films and completion of works-in-progress.
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For more information: Email: TibetVideo@aol.com Tibetan Video Archive Project
DEBRA DENKER, Project Director
PMB 514
551 W. Cordova Rd.
Santa Fe, NM 87505
Tel/Fax: 505.466.2989 |
To make a tax deductible donation:
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