Ngawang Choephel (born 1966) is a documentary filmmaker, director and producer.

Early life

Choephel was born in western

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

in 1966. He and his mother fled the hardship of Chinese occupation to India when he was two years old. He grew up in a Tibetan settlement in Southern India and attended the Central School for Tibetans-CST until the age of 15. In 1992 he graduated from the

Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts ] The Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (TIPA) was founded by Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama on reaching McLeod Ganj, Himachal Pradesh, India in exile from Tibet in August 1959. It was then called Tibetan Music, Dance and Drama Society, ...

-TIPA in Dharamshala, India.

Career

Prior to filmmaking, Choephel was a music teacher in Tibetan schools in India, where he taught Tibetan folk music to hundreds of children from exile communities. He released his first album called

Melody in Exile A melody (from Greek language, Greek μελῳδία, ''melōidía'', "singing, chanting"), also tune, voice or line, is a Linearity#Music, linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most liter ...

with a student of his. His passion for music garnered him a

Fulbright The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

scholarship in 1993 to study international music and filmmaking at

Middlebury College Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont. Founded in 1800 by Congregationalists, Middlebury was the first operating college or university in Vermont. The college currently enrolls 2,858 undergraduates from all ...

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

, United States. He is also a recipient of Middlebury College's Honorary Doctor of Arts Degree,

Peace Abbey's Courage of Conscience Award Peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony in the absence of hostility and violence. In a social sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (such as war) and freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups. ...

, Lobsang Wangyal's Best Act in Exile Award, and is a Sundance Institute Fellow.

Arrest and imprisonment

In August 1995 Choephel went to Tibet in order to record and videotape Tibetan folk songs for his documentary film. However, in September 1995 he was arrested by Chinese authorities, being charged with "espionage and counter-revolutionary activities" while he was filming his documentary. He was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment. The Chinese authorities have not publicly produced the charges against him. In August 2000 Choephel's mother and uncle were allowed to visit him. In a statement released on Choephel, he related to his mother Ms. Sonam Dekyi that he had been on a hunger strike in protest over not receiving proper medical care. After the visit, his mother reported that her son was very frail, just "skin and bones", with pale, almost yellow skin. A highly publicized international campaign that began with his mother's solitary protests finally secured his release in 2002. His case received international attention and support from U.S. Senators

James Jeffords James Merrill Jeffords (May 11, 1934 – August 18, 2014) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a U.S. senator from Vermont. Sworn into the Senate in 1989, he served as a Republican until 2001, when he left the party to become ...

and Patrick Leahy of Vermont, U.S. House of Representatives member from Vermont,

Bernie Sanders Bernard Sanders (born September8, 1941) is an American politician who has served as the junior United States senator from Vermont since 2007. He was the U.S. representative for the state's at-large congressional district from 1991 to 2007 ...

and musicians

Annie Lennox Ann Lennox (born 25 December 1954) is a Scottish singer-songwriter, political activist and philanthropist. After achieving moderate success in the late 1970s as part of the New wave music, new wave band the Tourists, she and fellow musician D ...

, and

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

. Chophel was finally released in 2002 on "

medical parole Compassionate release is a process by which inmates in criminal justice systems may be eligible for immediate early release on grounds of "particularly extraordinary or compelling circumstances which could not reasonably have been foreseen by t ...

" from

Chengdu Chengdu (, ; Simplified Chinese characters, simplified Chinese: 成都; pinyin: ''Chéngdū''; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively Romanization of Chi ...

prison after 6 years imprisonment.

Documentary Film projects

Choephel resumed working on his documentary film project upon his release from prison in 2002. He directed and produced

Tibet in Song ''Tibet in Song'' is a 2009 documentary film written, produced, and directed by Ngawang Choephel. The film celebrates traditional Tibetan folk music while depicting the past fifty years of Chinese rule in Tibet, including Ngawang's experience as a ...

, which is his first feature-length documentary on traditional Tibetan folk music and his own harrowing journey into the past fifty years of cultural repression inside Chinese controlled Tibet. The film premiered at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

in 2009 where it won a Special Jury Award in the

World Documentary Competition In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

. Was had its initial theatrical release in New York City on September 24, 2010, with plans for U.S. and worldwide release thereafter. Since then,

has been screened worldwide and has won numerous awards, including back using; the CINE Golden Eagle Award; Emerging Director Award, AAIFF; Best Documentary, Calgary International Film Festival; Cinema for Peace International Human Rights Award, Berlin; Best Documentary, San Louis Obispo International Film Festival; Special Jury Mention,

One World International Film Festival Prague 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

; Audience Award, Watch Docs International Human Rights Film Festival; Special Jury Mention, Watch Docs International Human Rights Film Festival and Audience Award,

Movies that Matter A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

, the Hague. Choephel also is a recipient of Independent Film Project. "Missing in Tibet", a film realised on his story received the prize for "best Human Rights Film" at a film festival in Taos, New Mexico. Ngawang Choephel currently resides in the United States and continues to be a high-profile member of the exiled Tibetan community.

References

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20100708064222/http://www.tibetinsong.com/ - Official Website
Documentary film by former Tibetan political prisoner premieres in Dharamsala

Release from Prison and Return to the United States

* 2002-01-21 (Mon) http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGASA170052002 * ... http://web.amnesty.org/wire/March2002/Tibet * 2002-01-20 (Sun) http://www.duihua.org/media/press/statements/statement_on_choephel_release.htm * 2002-01-20 (Sun) http://www.tibetanliberation.org/nchoephelrel.html * 2002-01-20 (Sun) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/1772198.stm * 2002-02-07 (Thu) http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGASA170062002

Amnesty International appeals for the release of Ngawang Choephel

* 2001-05-28 (Mon) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/1355696.stm * 2000-10-09 (Mon) http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGASA170412000 * 2000-08-11 (Fri) http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGASA170362000 * 2000-02-14 (Mon) http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGASA170032000 * 1996-03-28 (Thu) http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGASA170491996 {{DEFAULTSORT:Choephel, Ngawang Living people Tibetan people Tibetan film directors Documentary film directors Chinese prisoners and detainees Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by China Tibetan journalists Photography in Tibet Ethnomusicologists Asian Cultural Council grantees Tibetan writers 1966 births