Wilderness Films India Ltd. and Clear Mirror Pictures

PRESS RELEASE:

The first Indo-Tibetan digital feature film!

WILDERNESS FILMS INDIA LIMITED and CLEAR MIRROR PICTURES are happy to announce that the first Tibetan-language digital feature length fiction film has been entirely shot, and is currently in post-production in New Delhi, one of the first Indian feature films to use New Delhi as a post-production base. On March 18, “We're No Monks” (WNM) began shooting on location around Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh, India. The film is now in post-production. Due to be completed by October 2003, in time for the Sundance Film Festival, WNM is already drawing attention in the international film festival circuit. The movie tells the story of four friends living in McLeod Ganj, Dharamsala. “We're no Monks” shows a world of Tibetans sharply different from that usually perceived by the West. Caught between the expectations of a traditional society and the realities of the present world situation, these four friends attempt to reconcile their dreams and aspirations with the social and political influences that push them down the path of terrorism, which is naturally against the non-violent teachings of the Dalai Lama.

To put this story on screen for an international audience, film school graduates and professionals from all over the world — the US, Germany, Italy, and India, and including veteran Bollywood actor Mr. Gulshan Grover and artists from the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts — have joined up with Pema Dhondup. Mr. Grover agreed to join the project as he liked the contemporary nature of the script about exiled Tibetan refugees living in India. He has not taken any compensation for his talent, as a gesture of his contribution to the Tibetan cause. He plays the role of a no nonsense local police officer. The film will be released in theaters in the United States and Europe, as part of mainstream film distribution channels, which will be initiated with the help of Wilderness Films' distributor, Mr. Archie Scott from Florida. The film will also be released on DVD/VCD worldwide.

In India, the film will be released in a few select theatres in New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Calcutta and Dharamshala.

Pema Dhondup, the writer, director, and coproducer of this film, made news videos and documentaries before getting a formal education in filmmaking from USC film school in Los Angeles from where some of the best Hollywood talent has graduated, through the Tibetan Fulbright scholarship program. He was chosen from amongst all the graduate students to direct a USC produced short film in his second year only, which is not only competitive but also prestigious because of the studio like production method of the film. He floated Clear Mirror Pictures after his return to India last September, to make films that are content based.Rupin Dang spent five years at the Film Studies department of Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, where he both studied and taught. He is now the Managing Director of Wilderness Films India Ltd., a broadcast services facility and television software production and stock archival organization in New Delhi. Himself a documentary filmmaker, this is his first involvement in a fictional feature project. When the WNM film project was brought before him, he immediately agreed to co-produce and take a 50% equity stake in the project. A believer in the rights of the Tibetan people, Rupin felt that supporting the project and making it happen was of paramount importance. Shot on 16:9 widescreen Digital Betacam, the film will be the first feature film of its kind in India to be blown up to 35mm for theatrical release. A practice quite common in the west, in order to save the costs associated with making a celluloid feature film, Pema decided to opt for it, in order to get the unique look he wanted for the neo-realistic docu-drama nature of the project.Although there is no exact budget for the film, it is estimated to be around US $ 250,000 after accounting for all the actual and real costs that will be incurred by the end of the project.We would welcome the presence of journalists and interested folks, at our post-production studio, where work on the film is continuing round the clock, and is due for completion in October. Please contact the producers for more information, location and production/film stills, or for an appointment to visit the studio.

Issued by:

Pema Dhondup and 
Rupin Dang, Director, Wilderness Films India Ltd.