The Thread of Karma
Directed by Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam
2007, 52 minutes
The Thread of Karma will have its world premiere at the Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City on November 10, 2007 and will be followed by a discussion with co-director, Ritu Sarin.
The Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival is the longest-running showcase for international documentaries in the United States, encompassing a broad spectrum of work, from indigenous community media to experimental nonfiction.
About the Film
In 1991, filmmakers Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam made The Reincarnation of Khensur Rinpoche (Mead Festival 1992), which followed the search and discovery of a four-year-old reincarnated lama, Phara Khenchen Rinpoche. Sixteen years later, the directors revisit the reincarnation at Drepung Monastery in South India. The film offers an intimate look at the life of a young lama as he aspires to live up to the reputation of his former incarnation. It also explores his moving relationship with the two people closest to him, his attendant and his spiritual master, both of whom were connected to him in his previous life. By focusing on these ties that cut across lifetimes, the film paints a touching portrait of Rinpoche even as it demystifies the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of reincarnation.
Director’s Bios
White Crane Films was formed in 1990 in London by Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam.
Ritu and Tenzing’s first film together was their student effort, The New Puritans: The Sikhs of Yuba City, which was completed in 1985. It won a number of awards in America and was broadcast on national PBS and the Learning Channel.
In 1987, they moved to London to help the Meridian Trust, a Buddhist film and video archive, develop its archives. As part of their efforts, they documented on video a number of historic trips made by the Dalai Lama, including the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Norway.
In 1990, they made The Reincarnation of Khensur Rinpoche. The film was screened at numerous international film festivals and was broadcast throughout the world. It also had a successful theatrical release in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and the USA.
Their subsequent films, some of which were commissioned by the BBC, include The Trials of Telo Rinpoche, A Stranger in My Native Land, and The Shadow Circus: The CIA in Tibet. Their most recent work is a video installation, Some Questions on the Nature of Your Existence, which was commissioned by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna.
In 1996, they moved to Dharamsala, India to be closer to the exiled Tibetan community about whom they planned to make a feature film. That project, Dreaming Lhasa, was shot in the winter of 2003 with a predominantly non-professional cast and completed in January 2005.
Tibet, in all its dimensions, has been the focus of Ritu and Tenzing’s work. Through their films, they have attempted to document, question, and reflect on the issues of exile, identity, culture, and politics that confront the Tibetan people.
Click here to read an interview with Ritu Sarin, Co-Director of The Thread of Karma
