The Dalai Lama Comes to Vancouver

Posted by Lori Henry Jul 9, 2008

This month, a series called Touched by Tibet is screening at Vancouver’s Vancity Theatre, presented by the theatre and Canada Tibet Committee. Running from July 18th-30th, each film deals with issues facing Tibet, both in documentary and narrative format.

10 Questions for The Dalai Lama is a documentary by Rick Ray, which acts as both a memoir of his travels through India and an interview with the Dalai Lama himself. Ray was allowed 10 questions for his holiness and received some profound and amusing answers.

Shots of the countryside through India, where the Dalai Lama is living in exile, are stunning, and inner city shots reveal the poverty faced by locals each day. Yet within the dire history of China’s plan to control Tibet, lies some beautiful moments of both monks and people being truly happy.

Also playing in the series is Blindsight, a movie about blind Tibetan children as they climb the 23,000 foot Lhakpa Ri mountain on the north side of Mount Everest. The other documentary is The Unwinking Gaze: The Inside Story of the Dalai Lama’s Struggle for Tibet.

Professor Tsering Shakya will attend the Friday and Saturday screenings of The Unwinking Gaze, and Professor Jeffrey Hopkins will be at the Wednesday 7:00pm show, as well as the 7:00pm Tuesday screening of 10 Questions for The Dalai Lama.

All films are shown at the Vancity Theatre (1181 Seymour Street, 604-683-3456) as part of the Touched by Tibet film series. Tickets are $9.50 CDN for adults ($12.00 for a double bill), $7.50 for students and seniors ($10.00 for a double bill), and $7.50 for all matinees. You must also buy a $2.50 membership.