After MONTHS of work, the day finally arrived.
Last Saturday, at the Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square, we finally premiered our documentary 'Little Tibet'.
This has probably been the biggest project I've ever undertaken, and so it was wonderful to finally get it out of the edit and onto the big screen.
The project started over a year ago when Sonam came to me with an idea for a feature documentary. Sonam is a Tibetan man I'd met at pro Tibet protests a few years back. I'd also interviewed him for short documentary I made at Uni, which was probably why he thought of me for this film.
The idea was to film a road movie, following him as an exiled Tibetan into the himalayan region of Ladakh; the furthest point north of India that can be reached before entering Tibet.
I liked the idea straight off, but was aware that maybe this was a little too huge a project to take on between just the two of us.
Fortunately I didn't listen to that instinct.
I was very much following the theory that "it's better to regret doing something than regret not doing something" at the time, and while it's a massively flawed theory it certainly gets you involved in things.
And so, it was with some mild terror that I hired a couple of cameras and headed off on a plane to India.
What happened there... Well, luckily for you I made a documentary about it!
What? You haven't seen it? Don't worry, I'll put a link to the DVD at the end.
We shot continuously for nearly a month. I saw some incredible and life changing things, and then came home.
To edit.
Editing took a year.
A YEAR.
Admittedly that year also facilitated several other projects, and in the scheme of things, a year isn't that long, but still... I was ready to finish.
Which was lucky, because I did. Even more lucky: people seemed to like it.
We first went to Tibet Society to talk about help with getting the film screened. After watching a cut of the film they jumped right in with us and pretty much single handedly organised the entire premiere. TS really were a blessing for us, and cannot be thanked enough for their work.
Okay, enough with the text, let's have some video. So first up, here's the trailer for the film:
And here's what a few people at the premiere had to say about it:
So there we have it!
If you want to catch the film at one of our screenings, head on over to www.littletibetfilm.com, where we are constantly adding new screenings all over the globe.
If you'd like to buy it on DVD, Tibet Society are selling it for us on their website here: http://www.tibetsociety.com/content/view/199
Or here: http://www.enlightenedgifts.org/little-tibet-dvd-250-p.asp