Dreaming Lhasa

Karma, a Tibetan filmmaker from New York, goes to Dharamsala, the Dalai Lama’s exile headquarters in northern India, to make a documentary about former political prisoners who have escaped from Tibet. She wants to reconnect with her roots but is also escaping a deteriorating relationship back home.
One of Karma’s interviewees is Dhondup, an enigmatic ex-monk who has just escaped from Tibet. He confides in her that his real reason for coming to India is to fulfill his dying mother’s last wish, to deliver a charm box to a long-missing resistance fighter. Karma finds herself unwittingly falling in love with Dhondup even as she is sucked into the passion of his quest, which becomes a journey into Tibet’s fractured past and a voyage of self-discovery.

Festivals and Screenings

• 30th International de Films de Femmes, Creteil, France
• 3rd Festiwal Filmy Swiata, Poland
• 10th Ethnofilmfest, Berlin
• Circle Cinema, Tulsa
• Northwest Film Forum, Seattle
• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
• Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago
• ImaginAsian Theater, New York
• Himalayan Film Festival, Amsterdam
• Austin Asian Film Festival, USA
• International Buddhist Film Festival, Amsterdam
• Munich Asia Filmfest
• Films from the South, Oslo
• Berlin Asia-Pacific Film Festival
• Independent South Asian Film Festival, Seattle
• Bite the Mango Film Festival, Bradford, UK
• Festival do Rio (Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival)
• Pacific-Meridian Vladivostock International Film Festival, Russia
• Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, New York
• 54th Trento Film Festival, Italy
• Minneapolis-St Paul International Film Festival
• Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles
• Roma Independent Film Festival
• Human Rights Watch International Film Festival, London
• 24th San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival
• 2006 Bangkok International Film Festival
• Spice PVR Cinemas, Noida, Delhi
• International Habitat Centre, New Delhi
• 12th Victoria Independent Film and Video Festival, Canada
• 10th International Film Festival of Kerala
• 8th International Meeting of Cinema and History, Istanbul
• 1st Asian Festival of 1st Films, Singapore
• 2nd Amazonas Film Festival, Manaus, Brazil
• 53rd San Sebastian International Film Festival
• 30th Toronto International Film Festival