Tibetan director Pema Tseden (1969–2023) became, during his all-too-short life, one of the most remarkable filmmakers of this century. He revolutionized the representation of Tibet and Tibetans and shared his visions of authentic Tibetan life with the entire film-going world by reimagining how narrative cinematic fiction could operate within so-called “Chinese minority cinema”.
His alternative formal strategies and narrative framings were inspired by the contemporary lived experience of Tibetans, centering in his works their culture, language, religion, and ways of inhabiting and interpreting their world. Pema Tseden died mid-career, at the age of 53. Yet he left us eight features remarkable for their formal range and quiet, rhapsodic beauty.
– Shelly Kraicer, curator
Shelly Kraicer, curator
Shelly Kraicer received BA in philosophy at Yale University. He lived in Beijing, China for eleven years, where he studied Chinese and wrote about the cinemas of China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. He has curated retrospectives on the Fourth Generation of Chinese directors, on Hong Kong art cinema, and career retrospectives of Johnnie To and Qiu Jiongjiong. In 2015 he co-organized Cinema on the Edge, an international touring series of contemporary independent Chinese films. He was a programmer at the Vancouver IFF and the International Film Festival Rotterdam. He has been published in Cinema Scope, Cineaste, Screendaily, the Village Voice, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and the New York Times, and has translated subtitles for over 60 recent Chinese films.
The Search
Shot in exquisite long takes, this brilliant film is a road movie wrapped around three love stories. A director and crew are looking for local cast to star in their film version of the classic Tibetan opera Prince Drime Kundun.
The Silent Holy Stones
In Pema Tseden's first feature, a very young Tibetan lama living in a monastery in Qinghai discovers the delights of binge-watching a Chinese TV serial, just one aspect of the contradictions he will have to navigate in a culture steeped in tradition.
Snow Leopard
The last film Pema Tseden finished before his death at age 53 is an enthralling, semi-mystical fable about the deep spiritual connection between a young Tibetan priest and a snow leopard responsible for killing livestock belonging to the priest's brother.
First Steps: Pema Tseden Short Films
Pema Tseden was the first Tibetan director to graduate from the Beijing Film Academy. The Silent Manistone (2002) and his graduation film, The Grassland (2004) are fascinating sketches for later works.
The Sacred Arrow
A romantic, gorgeously shot, widescreen modern fable, this is a marked departure from Pema Tseden's usual stye. Handsome Nyima and brooding Dradon are ace archers from rival villages who vie in an annual contest for the ultimate prize, the Sacred Arrow.