About the Free Spirit Film Festival
The Free Spirit Film Festival is the first of its kind. It was first produced by Lobsang Wangyal Productions in 2004 as the Tibetan Film Festival. The idea of the film festival is to honour and promote the Tibetan film and fIlmmakers and to encourage and inspire up and coming Tibetan filmmakers.
Tibet remains an occupied country by China and suffers the repressive policies China adopts. Film has an important role to play in bringing awareness about the situation to the world.
In 2004, at the Asian Film Festival in Bombay, the films Kundun and Seven Years in Tibet were not shown due to pressure from the Chinese embassy in New Delhi. This is evidence of the power film has to educate people. Kundun is a film depicting the early life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and his flight into exile after the Chinese occupation of Tibet. It is directed by Martin Scorsese and was be shown in the 2004 Tibetan Film Festival.
It is hoped that the festival will encourage and strengthen a film culture among Tibetans. Films are an indispensable medium in today's world, and a stronger film culture will provide enormous benefit to Tibetans. The works of the few Tibetan filmmakers need to be seen, promoted and honoured, and it is this festival which will provide a unique platform for this.