Tahoe/Reno International Film Festival to Screen Documentary about Humanitarian-Award Winning Doctor
Visioning Tibet Tells Story of Dr. Marc Lieberman and the Tibet Vision Project's work to end preventable blindness in Tibet by 2020. Filmmaker Isaac Solotaroff to attend festival.
(PRWEB) August 22, 2005 -- The Tahoe/Reno International Film Festival
(T-RIFF) will screen Visioning Tibet, a feature documentary about
humanitarian-award winning doctor, Marc Lieberman and the work of the Tibet
Vision Project, as part of its “Reel Point of View” program. Filmmaker Isaac
Solotaroff will be in attendance at the screening. The screening is scheduled
for Sunday, August 28 at 3:35 pm at the Incline Village Theatre, 901 Tahoe
Boulevard, Incline, NV.
Visioning Tibet “…vividly documents a miraculous
project in Tibet…a tremendously worthwhile film…” said His Holiness, The Dalai
Lama.
Visioning Tibet chronicles the passion of ophthalmologist Marc
Lieberman, founder of the Tibet Vision Project. His mission: to end preventable
blindness in Tibet — which has the highest rate of untreated cataract blindness
in the world — by 2020. Bringing light where there was once darkness,
Lieberman’s work has been recognized by the American Academy of Ophthalmology,
which named him 2003 Humanitarian of the Year.
The film tells the
stories of two of Tibetans — Karma and Lhasang — who have one last chance at
restored sight.
Karma, 52, is from a small northern Tibetan village. A
farmer, he works the land that his family has farmed for generations. Karma has
only left home to barter in a neighboring village and to make religious
pilgrimages. For two years, he has been gradually losing his eyesight,
preventing him from working in the fields. His one wish, if his sight is
restored, is to make a pilgrimage to a lake sacred in Tibetan Buddhism. Lhasang,
56, is patriarch of a nomadic family. Like his ancestors before him, he herds
yak and goats on the plains of northern and central Tibet. Lhasang’s blindness
has made him unable to provide for his family, darkening both his mood and
outlook on life.
The film follows the two men as they make the arduous
journey to a remote clinic in the hopes of having their sight restored by
Tibetan doctors, who have received technology and skill training through the
Tibetan Vision Project.
In order to shoot the documentary, Solotaroff
had to keep crew and equipment to a bare minimum — just a director/producer and
camera/sound person — in order not to raise suspicions of the Chinese
authorities. Local volunteers were used as grips and camera assistants. If the
Chinese officials had known that the crew was shooting a documentary, it’s
movements would have been closely monitored and restricted. Filming took nearly
three years. Visioning Tibet uses breathtaking cinematography to provide a view
of contemporary Tibet and its people seldom seen by international audiences
Dr. Marc Lieberman founded the Tibet Vision Project in 1995. The Tibet
Vision Project operates as a non-governmental organization (NGO). It is one of
the few NGOs or international health organizations able to function in Chinese –
ruled Tibet. For the past 10 years, “Dr. Marc” has made biannual one-month trips
to Tibet, leading a team of doctors, nurses and technicians he has trained.
Together, they run “eye camps” that provide basic eye care and perform up to 120
cataract operations in four days. To date, the project has restored sight to
over 3,000 Tibetans. The Project’s 10th anniversary was lauded in the
Congressional Record in July.
In the 1980’s, Lieberman became involved in
Buddhist meditation and practice and active in Buddhist communities throughout
northern California. He organized a series of meetings in the US and India
between The Dalai Lama and Jewish scholars and rabbis, during which time he
learned of cataract blindness crisis in Tibet. These meetings were the basis of
the book of The Jews in the Lotus.
Producer/Director Isaac Solotaroff is
an award-winning producer, director and editor. He was co-producer, co-director
and editor of his first film, Jews and Buddhism: Belief Amended, Faith Revealed.
Narrated by Sharon Stone, the film was chosen “one of the outstanding
documentaries of 1999” by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The
film was shown at over 30 international film festivals and screened on PBS.
Solotaroff was co-producer and editor of Los Romeros: The Royal Family
of the Guitar, which was nominated for a “best biography” Emmy in 2001 and
broadcast nationally on PBS. He has also edited several award-winning
documentaries including, Freestyle: The Art of Rhyme (HBO Best Documentary,
Urban World Film Festival) and Smokestack Lightening (Best Documentary, Memphis
Film Festival).
# # #
Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/8/prweb274369.htm