Pema Tseden Widely recognized as the leading filmmaker of a newly emerging Tibetan cinema, Pema Tseden is the first Tibetan filmmaker in contemporary Tibet to shoot a film entirely in the Tibetan language, with a Tibetan crew. His subject is also consistent: the contemporary culture and life of Tibet, shot from within local society, a practice that consciously puts his films in deliberate contrast to the exoticizing fiction features about Tibet that have been produced by outsiders, both Chinese and foreign. As a writer, Tseden has published more than 50 short stories and novels both in Tibetan and Chinese; his work has won numerous awards including the Drang-char (sbrang-char) Tibetan Literature Prize and has been translated into languages English, French, and German. His feature films, all of which have received great acclaim, are The Grassland (2004), The Silent Holy Stones(2005), The Search (2009), Old Dog (2011), The Sacred Arrow (2014) and most recently, Tharlo (2015) which was the first Tibetan film to be screened at the 2016 Venice Film Festival.
Tsering Perlo Tsering Perlo is founder of Rabsal, a local Tibetan NGO that engages Tibetans in documentary filmmaking to preserve and regenerate Tibetan culture and customs. A native of Dzachuka (Shiqu) County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and is a graduate of the Sichuan Provincial Tibetan Institute (SPTI). Perlo is the first recipient of the Machik Fellowship, a program designed to support dynamic Tibetan change-makers working to strengthen their communities and environments.
Lynn True& Nelson Walker Lynn True & Nelson Walker are New York based filmmakers, and founders of True Walker Productions and the Kham Film Project. After graduating from Brown University with a joint degree in Urban Studies and Architecture, Lynn worked on feature films and documentary programs for NBC News and PBS. Nelson is also a graduate of Brown University and holds an MFA in Film Directing from Columbia University. He began his career working on documentaries for Discovery Channel, History Channel, and PBS's Nova.
Together, Lynn and Nelson have made numerous films, including iThemba|Hope (Sundance Channel, 2005), Lumo (PBS's P.O.V. Series, 2007), Summer Pasture (PBS's Independent Lens Series, 2012) and most recently, In Transit (AlJazeera America & Sundance Institute, 2015). In addition to their work in Tibet, Lynn and Nelson also work in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and are programmers of the Congo in Harlem film series at Maysles Cinema.
Khashem Gyal Khashem Gyal is a graduate of Qinghai Nationalities University. He is the founder of the Amilolo Film Group, a film group dedicated to educating young Tibetans about digital video production and supporting a new generation of Tibetan filmmakers. He is also a core member of Plateau Photographers. Khashem Gyal has directed numerous short films about Tibetan life and culture. Valley of Heroes is his first full length documentary film. He was the 2014 Machik Global Innovation Fellow.