Ngawang Choephel is a documentary filmmaker, director, producer, and musician.

Early life

Choephel was born in western

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

in 1966. When he was two years old, he and his mother fled the hardships of Chinese occupation and sought refuge in India. They settled in a Tibetan settlement in Southern India, where Choephel grew up. He attended the Central School for Tibetans-CST until the age of 15. In 1992, he graduated from the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts-TIPA in

Dharamshala Dharamshala (, ; also spelled Dharamsala) is a town in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. It serves as the winter capital of the state and the administrative headquarters of the Kangra district since 1855. The town also hosts the Tibeta ...

, India.

Career

Prior to filmmaking, Choephel was a music teacher in Tibetan schools in India, where he taught Tibetan folk music to hundreds of children from exile communities. He released his first album called Melody in Exile with a student of his. His passion for music garnered him a

Fulbright The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

scholarship in 1993 to study international music and filmmaking at

Middlebury College Middlebury College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont, United States. Founded in 1800 by Congregationalism in the United States, Congregationalists, Middlebury w ...

Vermont Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provinces and territories of Ca ...

, United States. He is also a recipient of Middlebury College's Honorary Doctor of Arts Degree, Peace Abbey's Courage of Conscience Award, Lobsang Wangyal's Best Act in Exile Award, and is a Sundance Institute Fellow.

Arrest and imprisonment

In August 1995 Choephel went to Tibet in order to record and videotape Tibetan folk songs for his documentary film. However, in September 1995 he was arrested by Chinese authorities, being charged with "espionage and counter-revolutionary activities" while he was filming his documentary. He was sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment. The Chinese authorities never publicly produced the charges against him. In August 2000 Choephel's mother and uncle were allowed to visit him. In a statement released on Choephel, he related to his mother Ms. Sonam Dekyi that he had been on a hunger strike in protest over not receiving proper medical care. After the visit, his mother reported that her son was very frail, just "skin and bones", with pale, almost yellow skin. A highly publicized international campaign that began with his mother's solitary protests finally secured his release in 2002. His case received international attention and support from U.S. Senators James Jeffords and

Patrick Leahy Patrick Joseph Leahy ( ; born March 31, 1940) is an American politician and attorney who represented Vermont in the United States Senate from 1975 to 2023. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he also was the pr ...

of Vermont, U.S. House of Representatives member from Vermont,

Bernie Sanders Bernard Sanders (born September8, 1941) is an American politician and activist who is the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States Senate, United States senator from the state of Vermont. He is the longest-serving independ ...

and musicians

Annie Lennox Ann Lennox (born 25 December 1954) is a Scottish singer-songwriter, political activist and philanthropist. After achieving moderate success in the late 1970s as part of the new wave band the Tourists, she and fellow musician Dave Stewart w ...

, and

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained global fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and the piano, and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John ...

. Chophel was released in 2002 on " medical parole" from

Chengdu Chengdu; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ; Chinese postal romanization, previously Romanization of Chinese, romanized as Chengtu. is the capital city of the Chinese province of Sichuan. With a ...

prison after six years imprisonment.

Documentary film projects

Choephel resumed working on his documentary film project upon his release from prison in 2002. He directed and produced

Tibet in Song ''Tibet in Song'' is a 2009 documentary film written, produced, and directed by Ngawang Choephel. The film celebrates traditional Tibetan folk music while depicting the past fifty years of Chinese rule in Tibet, including Ngawang's experience as ...

, which is his first feature-length documentary on traditional Tibetan folk music and his own harrowing journey into the past fifty years of cultural repression inside Chinese-controlled Tibet. The film premiered at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

in 2009 where it won a Special Jury Award in the World Documentary Competition. Was had its initial theatrical release in New York City on September 24, 2010, with plans for U.S. and worldwide release thereafter. Since then,

has been screened worldwide and has won numerous awards, including back using; the CINE Golden Eagle Award; Emerging Director Award, AAIFF; Best Documentary,

Calgary International Film Festival The Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF) is a film festival held annually in Calgary, Alberta, in late September and early October. CIFF is the largest international film festival in Alberta and the sixth largest in Canada. In 2020, thei ...

; Cinema for Peace International Human Rights Award, Berlin; Best Documentary, San Louis Obispo

International Film Festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually annually and in a single city or region. Some film festivals show films outdoors or online. Films may be of recent date and depe ...

; Special Jury Mention, One World International Film Festival Prague; Audience Award, Watch Docs

International Human Rights Film Festival The International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (FIFDH) is one of the most important international events dedicated to cinema and human rights, held annually in Geneva. A ten-days long event is based on the concept ‘A film, A subject, ...

; Special Jury Mention, Watch Docs International Human Rights Film Festival and Audience Award, Movies that Matter, the Hague. Choephel also is a recipient of Independent Film Project. ''Missing in Tibet'', a film based on Choephel's story, received the prize for "best Human Rights Film" at a

film festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theater, cinemas or screening venues, usually annually and in a single city or region. Some film festivals show films outdoors or online. Films may be of recent ...

in Taos, New Mexico. Ngawang Choephel currently resides in the United States and continues to be a high-profile member of the exiled Tibetan community.

References

External links

Official website

Documentary film by former Tibetan political prisoner premieres in Dharamsala

Release from Prison and Return to the United States

* 2002-01-21 (Mon) http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGASA170052002 * ... http://web.amnesty.org/wire/March2002/Tibet * 2002-01-20 (Sun) http://www.duihua.org/media/press/statements/statement_on_choephel_release.htm * 2002-01-20 (Sun) http://www.tibetanliberation.org/nchoephelrel.html * 2002-01-20 (Sun) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/1772198.stm * 2002-02-07 (Thu) http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGASA170062002

Amnesty International appeals for the release of Ngawang Choephel

* 2001-05-28 (Mon) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/1355696.stm * 2000-10-09 (Mon) http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGASA170412000 * 2000-08-11 (Fri) http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGASA170362000 * 2000-02-14 (Mon

* 1996-03-28 (Thu) http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGASA170491996 {{DEFAULTSORT:Choephel, Ngawang Living people Tibetan people Tibetan film directors Documentary film directors Chinese prisoners and detainees Amnesty International prisoners of conscience held by China Tibetan journalists Photography in Tibet Ethnomusicologists Asian Cultural Council grantees Tibetan writers 1966 births 21st-century Tibetan musicians Tibetan emigrants to India People from Dharamshala