Novice filmmakers in rural China depict their lives thanks to course on documentary making
- A former Buddhist monk has made films about the many uses to which nomads put yak dung, and the ecological value of the pika, an animal on the Tibet Plateau
- He is one of nearly 300 beneficiaries of a programme to teach villagers how to make films about their environment and way of life
At a video festival in Beijing five years ago, a 50-minute film called Yak Dung impressed audiences with its gritty footage showing how yak excrement enriches the lives of Tibetan nomads.
Made by first-time director Lhaze, a former Buddhist monk from Qinghai province in northwest China, the film shows how nomads use yak dung to build homes and walls, treat ailments, and make Buddhist statues and children’s playthings.
A mother tells her child not to be repelled by yak dung, saying it is not dirty at all, as yaks do not consume anything dirty. And she reminds her child that villagers cannot survive on the Tibet Plateau without the dung. Its message is that the nomads treasure something urbanites find repugnant.
The documentary earned Lhaze the best director award at the One Foundation Video Festival and has since been screened at the Beijing Film Academy and universities including Renmin University of China, Peking University, and Tsinghua University. It has a a score of 8.4 out of 10 on film rating site Douban.
Lhaze is one of nearly 300 beneficiaries of the Visual Programme “From Our Eyes”, a film project launched by the Shan Shui Conservation Centre in Beijing, and the Centre for Indigenous Documentary and Cultural Perspective in Yunnan province in southwest China, to teach rural people in western China to make films about their environment and way of life.