Speaker: Pawo Choyning Dorji, film director
Date & Time: Friday, March 4, 2025, 4:30 pm Pacific
Venue: BAMPFA, 2155 Center St, Berkeley, CA 94720
Sponsor: The Himalayan Studies Initiative, Numata Center for Buddhist Studies, Glorisun Global Buddhist Network
Contact Info: Sanjyot Mehendale, (510) 643-5104, buddhiststudies@berkeley.edu
Access Coordinator: Maria Cisneros, bampfa@berkeley.edu, (510) 642-0808
This film screening is free of cost to attendees.
Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom
A young teacher in modern Bhutan, Ugyen, shirks his duties while planning to go to Australia to become a singer. As a reprimand, his superiors send him to the most remote school in the world, a glacial Himalayan village called Lunana, to complete his service. He finds himself exiled from his Westernized comforts after an arduous 8 day trek just to get there. There he finds no electricity, no textbooks, not even a blackboard. Though poor, the villagers extend a warm welcome to their new teacher, but he faces the daunting task of teaching the village children without any supplies. He wants to quit and go home, but he begins to learn of the hardship in the lives of the beautiful children he teaches, and begins to be transformed through the amazing spiritual strength of the villagers.
Pawo Choyning Dorji is a Bhutanese filmmaker, photographer and writer. He made his directorial debut with ‘Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom’ (2019), which has become Bhutan’s first film to be nominated for Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards. His second film The Monk and the Gun (2023) was shortlisted for the Best International Feature Film for the 96th Academy Awards. He is the youngest recipient of Bhutan’s highest civilian award, the Druk Thuksey (Royal Order of Bhutan), bestowed to him by the King of Bhutan, H.M. Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Program:
4:30 – Doors will open
5:00 – Film screening in Barbro Osher Theater
6:50 – Interview with Director Pawo Choyning Dorji
See the original event posting here.
