Good Feelings, Guilty Feelings

The Good

I’m making some great leeway with my film. I’m finding a lot of good stories to follow, and hearing a lot of interesting things about my topic from many different people. This last week Julia and I went and talked to Sonam, the assistant director of the Tibetan Centre for Conflict Resolution, which is very much dedicated to improving relationships between Tibetans and Indians. The sad part is, they won’t be having any workshops while we’re here, but Sonam agreed to do an interview later on and even said they could provide me with some still pictures of past workshops. I haven’t started filming any people yet, as I’m still waiting for my consent form to be translated, but I am still collecting shots from around the town, which is fun but difficult because I want to film everything.

The Guilty

The hardest thing right now is that sometimes I feel guilty pulling out my camera to film things around town. I feel kind of like a spy, but not a cool spy; I feel like a spy who doesn’t want to be a spy, but doesn’t know how else to accomplish the mission.  For Jeff, Brad, or anyone else with experience in documentary or photography, do you know what I mean? I’m not sure if I feel guilty because I am recording people and things without anyone knowing it, or if it’s because people do notice and I’m worried about what they will think of me. Or maybe it’s the thought that ultimately I will decide what my viewers see and I will, to a significant degree, control how my audience views and judges the people and places shown in the film. Of course, I want to use this film for good; I want my audience to love the characters and to learn from their examples, but I it’s scary to think that I could just as easily do the opposite. A camera is such a powerful tool. I think that’s what scares me the most about documentary…

So I will be careful as I proceed. I still want to make the film, and I feel that my intentions are right, but I recognize the need for caution. I am thankful to have Brad and Jeff helping me with this project and I am also thankful in advance to any others following this blog who are able to give advice. Last of all I am thankful for prayer because I am sure that I will be saying many along the way, asking for guidance and confirmation to what I am doing. Hopefully the product of all these things will be an amazing film that uplifts and inspires.

Thanks again to everyone for your support.

Did you see the Dalai Lama?

We missed out on it, but we heard yesterday that His Holiness The Dalai Lama walked from his house to the temple and that lots and lots of people gathered to see him. Most of the time The Dalai Lama is very busy traveling and teaching in different parts of the world or working out business or in meditation so it’s actually not that often that people can see him even in his current hometown. Thus, any chance people do get, they are very eager to see him, even if it’s just for a moment or two. It just goes to show how highly the Tibetan people hold their spiritual leader and how important he is to their lives.

This is all leading up to a story by the way. Julia and I are trying to learn some of the Tibetan language so we have been practicing. Last night during dinner I asked our host mother if she saw the Dalai Lama that day, “Te-ring kay-rang His Holiness Tong-gi-yin?” I was very proud of myself for figuring out the whole sentence by myself and for remembering the verb “Tong” for “to see.” Our host parents on the other hand did not congratulate me, but instead reacted somewhat in shock, telling me not to use “Tong” but a different word (which i have now forgotten), which is the honorific form of “to see.” In Tibetan there is both a regular version and an honorific version of every verb and noun. However, the little Tibetan phrasebook we have does not include these honorific versions of these words, so I only knew “Tong”. I was really happy just to have remembered that, but for our host parents it seemed offensive to speak of His Holiness in that way. Again, it just shows how much they truly respect and love The Dalai Lama, and it taught me a valuable cultural and linguistic lesson. Needless to say, I think I’ll ask for the honorific version of a word next time I want to say something about The Dalai Lama or any important leader for that matter.

Started Filming!

Started some filming today! I’m trying to get some general and “First Impression” footage of McLeod Ganj, as well as anything else I can foresee being helpful to the film.

Here are some shots I have already:

- Dharamsala valley, with emerging tree-covered hills and mountains

- The hills of McLeod Ganj, covered in tall, stacked houses

- An above view of a street with people, cars, buses, rickshaws, and a cow passing by

- A Tibetan flag blowing in the wind

- A sticker with the Dalai Lama that says “Thank You INDIA, 50 years in exile”

- Lots and lots of monkeys

I have a lot more things to film of course, but anything anyone else thinks would be vital to see in setting up the area, feel free to make suggestions!

Story Outline

 We’ve been in McLeod Ganj for a week now and I’m getting ready to start some initial filming and a deeper search for my two main characters. I am actually pretty optimistic right now because it seems like there is enough conflict and enough success to make a good story about my topic. In this last week I heard a story about a bunch of Tibetans beating up an Indian guy, and then I heard another story about some Tibetans who take care of a crippled Indian. I hope to investigate both of these more in depth, as both would be of great value to my story.

I’ve written out a brief, possible story outline for the film. It may be subject to change of course, but it’s always good to have a direction.

This is what I’m thinking:

Exposition:

• ·         Introduce Tibetan and Indian main characters (one at a time)

o  Explain who they are and how they came to be in Dharamsala

• ·         With these introductions, introduce the area – “First Impressions” clips

• ·         Characters describe the area/situation/Indian-Tibetan population

Inciting moment/Rising Action:

• ·         Through interviews with, or observational footage of general population, start to introduce conflicts between Tibetans/Indians

• ·         Go back to the two main characters and show what they’re doing to counteract conflicts and improve relations

• ·         Show conflicts/difficulties in these character’s goals

Crisis:

• ·         Any additional big-time conflicts in the community or main character’s lives

Climax/Resolution:

• ·         Main character’s finding success

• ·         Others in the community following their example, helping others

• ·         Farewells to main characters, any final comments from them

Also I thought I might add I’ve been reading a report from a former India field study student who came a couple years ago and studied the relationship between Indians and Tibetans. She was looking at it from more of a technical and political perspective, but what she found has been a help to me in understanding the situation. Basically what she says is that the general rule for good relationships between separate communities, people, or cultures, is that the more interaction there is between the two, the better the relationship is. But what’s strange about Dharamsala and McLeod Ganj is that the Tibetans and Indians tend to keep to themselves, but somehow still manage to have a good relationship (good mainly meaning non-violent or non-problematic). In her research she came to the conclusion that the reason they have a good relationship despite their lack of interaction, is that they have found a way to benefit from each other. Tibetans benefit from India because they have been given a place to live and have been granted the ability to run their own government. In return, Indians benefit financially from the great amount of tourism that Tibetans have brought to this part of India. So because of the benefits, neither side has a lot they can complain about, because without each other, they would probably be worse off.

So that explanation could possibly come in to play somewhere in the film, but I don’t think it necessarily needs to for my purposes. Either way, this study has helped me to understand the relationship better, and I feel like it will at least guide the direction and questions of the film.

First Impressions of India

We've made it to India. Julia and I arrived one week ago. We stayed a few days in New Delhi and then traveled up to McLeod Ganj where we will be staying for the next three months.

In this blog I will make posts about the development of my short documentary film, responses to articles, books, or parts of books I have read, and thoughts about cultural experiences or activities I have participated in.

To kick things off, I would simply like to share some thoughts of my first impressions of India.

1. India is hot
During our time in Delhi the temperature was well above 100 F every day. Now that we're up in the mountains in McLeod Ganj things have cooled off a little, but if we had come straight to McLeod without stopping in Delhi first, it would probably feel just as hot.

2. India is beautiful
Although it may be considered a developing country, the land, architecture, city structure, and parks of India are very beautiful. Some things such as the large temples and political buildings could be considered obviously beautiful whereas the back roads and the stacked puzzle-piece houses are more subtly beautiful like an abstract painting. Everything has some degree of beauty to it, and I hope I continue to see India in this way.

3. India has a lot of people in it
India seems to be packed full of people. Even in the "small" town of McLeod Ganj the streets are full of Tibetans, Indians, and foreigners from all over the world. I think this diversity may be one of my favorite things about McLeod. It makes things complicated at times, with English, Hindi, and Tibetan all being main languages, but I am studying Hindi and Tibetan in hope to be able to communicate with more of the population, and the difficulty just may be worth it to get to experience so much culture in one place.

4. India has a lot of animals in it
Cows, dogs, goats, birds, monkeys, camels, elephants, and more. I have seen all of these since we have arrived (some more than others). What I find most interesting about the animals of India is there relationship with the people. Animals are respected and cared for in India. In return they are mostly very calm and gentle around people. They are not afraid of humans, and then humans are not afraid of them. One day in Delhi, we were riding in a taxi when all of a sudden, the driver pulled over, jumped out of the car, bought some bird food and threw it to a crowd of pigeons. Then, a favorite sight from a few days ago, as we were walking around the Buddhist temple path we saw a cow, a dog, and several monkeys all walking around on the path, with people walking right by them. This relationship between people and animals fascinates me, and is something I would like to learn more about.

There are a lot of other things I could say about India. Already I have had so many wonderful experiences, but I know there are still so many more out there, so I need to get out of this internet cafe and back into the world.