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Showing posts from 2004

REVIEW: Shooting Karma by Tsering Rhitar

Shooting Karma Dec 5, 2004, Nation Weekly magazine Tsering Rhitar is a perfectionist who works his scenes meticulously, getting take after take until he’s ready to move to the next scene BY SUSHMA JOSHI Tsering Rhitar stands by the reception area in the Sherpa Hotel, directing his film. The film, titled “Karma,” is a story about a nun who walks down from Mustang to Pokhara to Kathmandu to track down a man who owes money to the monastery. The nuns need the money to do a puja. The film, says Rhitar, is about the paradox of the co-existence of materialism and spirituality. “Use your own language,” Rhitar urges his actor. The director is wearing a brightly colored Nepali topi as he directs his multinational crew his cameraman Ranjan Pallit is from India, his actors are Nepali, and he himself has a partial Tibetan background. His shooting script is written in English, with scribbled notes in Tibetan. Little storyboards have been drawn in stick figures next to the script. The dialogu

WATER (PANI)

PANI (WATER) Director: Sushma Joshi Producer: IRC and Nepal Water for Health, and Ton Schouten Film Company, Netherlands Format: Beta and digital Running Time: 29 minutes Featured on CNN International's Q and A with Riz Khan in 2000 WATER (PANI) is a documentary that explores the notions of "community", in the context of development. The people of Lele, a village near Kathmandu, narrate the history of how they set up a committee to manage their drinking water system. The narrative moves from a fairly uncomplicated story told by the leaders about the initial installation to the complexities of gender and caste relations. Women, the main users of water, voice their exclusion. The water committee is made up of upper caste Chettri men. Women, while token members, are not allowed to make decisions. In contrast, a neighbouring Tamang village, in which a women's group has also been set up, cite their successes in raising cattle and savings activities. This wome

PANI - Where to Buy

You can buy PANI from IRC Netherlands. Directed by Sushma Joshi, produced by NEWAH (Nepal Water for Health Kathmandu, Nepal) (2001) This 28-minute video presentation in Nepali (with English subtitles) shows the very lively discussions between the inhabitants of the rural Nepali village, Lele, about the daily problems of their water supply system and its management. It follows the growing conflict in the community after a water pipe and tap system was installed. Gender and caste differences play a vital part in the disputes as women and lower caste members are excluded from decision making even though they are the principal users. The video tracks the wide disparity in control and communication revealing frustrations that result in the pipe being cut and maintenance fees unpaid. The lesson portrayed is that even small scale models of development will not work unless traditional social infrastructure, especially gender biases and cultural discrimination, are not addressed by dono

A Teacher's Guide: Water and Development in Nepal

This teaching guide for high school teachers was developed by Educate the Children and Cornell's South Asia Program. Download it from ETC. http://www.etc-nepal.org/Assets/pdf/Nepal_water.pdf Download it from Pustakalaya.

PANI Poster and postcard

INTERVIEW: Nabin Subba

This interview was published in the Nation Weekly magazine in 2004. KHULA MANCH Nabin Subba (35), the director of the acclaimed film Numafung, talked with Sushma Joshi of The Nation Weekly about his films, the Nepali independent film movement and his visions of nation-building. The Nation: How did Numafung come about? NS: During the pre-democracy days, I worked in journalism for almost a decade, first in Nepali Awaj for 3 years, and then in Deshantar for 5 years. I was doing mainstream reporting. Then I started to focus on art and culture, and later exclusively on film. I was dissatisfied with Nepali films, and would write critiques about them. I had long discussions with my filmmaker friends about making a film that would have a Nepali identity, but they all said it was not possible. They said it would not be commercially viable. So I said, okay, I will have to do it myself. The Nation: So you took it as a challenge? NS: Yes. I wanted to experiment with a Nepali form, one

INTERVIEW: Bhaskar Dhungana

BHASKAR DHUNGANA Bhaskar Dhungana, one of the owners of the Jai Nepal Cinema Hall, talked with Sushma Joshi of the Nation Weekly about the hall’s history, upcoming plans for digital exhibition, and the potential for Nepali films to be more widely distributed with new digital technology. Jai Nepal Hall is doing successful business at a time when most cinema halls are barely breaking even. We are surviving. Why is cinema not doing so well in Nepal? Cinema is not cinema anymore. It was a social event before. Now it’s a place where people are herded together in a commercialized space. We have to recreate the social aspect, in my opinion. We have to make it fun. And by this I mean a clean environment, and a place where families and children are welcome. Cinema is also about light and sound as well, and the technology has to be good. How did you get interested in starting a cinema hall? I always thought it would be nice to have theatres like the one in foreign countries in Nepa

On The Road With The Red God

Kesang Tseten’s new film captures both the Rato Machhindranath festival and the  preparations  accompanying the grand event Issue 2, Nation Weekly Magazine, 2004 BY SUSHMA JOSHI The sight of a priest proudly displaying a tiny vest at the Rato Machhindranath festival has been etched into our national consciousness. “On the road with the Red God: Machhindranath” is a film recently made by Kesang Tseten. Tseten takes 110 hours of footage of various acts of human ingenuity and devotion to what seems like a lost cause—namely, the construction of an unwieldy 100 foot chariot that gets tangled up in the electric wires of Patan and tilts drunkenly as it is dragged and pushed and pulled by enthusiasts across flood-washed roads every 12 years, and where men get roaring drunk and get into fights all the way from Bungmati to Patan, and then repeat the process all the way back. Behind the vest rests a red god, known as the Rato Machhindranath. This is the divinity worthy of all that work—painters