The Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Centre for Buddhist Studies at the University of Toronto has announced a new film series on Buddhism and The Environment. The series will showcase the work of three women in film, who will be in attendance for their respective films. These films are open to all. It all starts this month.
Screenings will take place at 6:30pm in Room 100 at 170 St George St. Toronto, ON M5R2M8
February 28, 2017
Drokpa
Join us for a screening of Drokpa, followed by a talkback with Director Yan Chun Su.
DROKPA Trailer from yan chun su on Vimeo.
Set in the high plateau of eastern Tibet, Drokpa is an intimate portrait of the lives and struggles of Tibetan nomads whose lives are on the cusp of irreversible change. The grasslands of the Tibetan plateau are home to the source of Asia’s major rivers. Half of humanity depends on this water for survival. Tibetan nomads, known as DROKPA have roamed on this land for thousands of years. In recent decades, these once lush grasslands are rapidly turning into deserts.
With rare access to an extended nomadic family living at the center stage of this drastic and historical change, Drokpa reveals the unprecedented environmental and sociopolitical forces that are pushing the Tibetan nomads to the edge of their existence.
Richly observed daily lives and family relationships are at once deeply personal and illustrative of the universal issues of gender, freedom, adaptation to a changing climate and the resilience of human spirits.
March 14, 2017
Shielding the Mountains: Cultures of Nature in Tibet
with Producer Dr. Emily T. Yeh
Why have Tibetans become environmentalists? How do Tibetan conceptions of nature differ from Western ones? What is the relationship between culture and nature? This film explores these questions through a narrative that features Rinchen Samdrup, the leader of a Tibetan community environmental association in a remote area of Chamdo in the eastern Tibet Autonomous Region, and Tashi Dorje, a leading Tibetan environmentalist in China who first became interested in conservation after the death of a good friend at the hands of Tibetan antelope poachers.
See the U of T event post for Shield the Mountains.
March 28, 2017
Pad Yatra: A Green Odyssey
Join us for a screening of Pad Yatra: A Green Odyssey. A talk back with director Wendy J. N. Lee will follow the film.
Pad Yatra: A Green Odyssey is the harrowing adventure of 700 people, trekking across the Himalayas with a call to save the planet’s “3rd Pole,” a glacial region now devastated by the climate chaos associated with global warming.Battling the most treacherous terrain on earth, they spread their message of ecological compassion through human’s most basic means –by walking on foot, village to village, and showing by example. Barely surviving injuries, illness, and starvation, the trekkers emerge with nearly half a ton of plastic litter strapped to their backs, triggering an historic green revolution across the rooftop of the world.
Further Details: buddhiststudies.utoronto.ca/events
Contact: Christopher Pugh, Program Manager, 416-978-0877, buddhiststudies@utoronto.ca