A documentary film about Chinese-occupied Tibet is being screened across North America in an effort to expose the imprisonment of its filmmaker.
The documentary Leaving Fear Behind, filmed by Dhondup Wangchun, is currently on the road with help from Amnesty International and the Canada-Tibet Committee. Wangchun, whose wife has been presenting the film on the tour, was put behind bars in March of 2008 by the Chinese government in connection with his filming.
The documentary details the Chinese occupation of Tibet and the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
“When it was announced that China would host the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Wangchun, along with many other Tibetans, was enraged and decided to travel abroad to Chinese-occupied Tibet to record and report the observations of how Tibetans felt about China being given the world stage when conditions are so bad in Tibet because of the Chinese regime,” says Judy Tethong, president of the Canada-Tibet Committee.
Prior to filming Leaving Fear Behind, Wangchun left his family in Dharamsala because their lives could be in danger in Tibet if he got caught.
“Before Wangchun was captured, a Tibetan woman from England who was attending university in Beijing secretly traveled to the southern part of China to meet Wangchun and collect the raw footage he filmed,” says Tethong. “She handed it over to a flight attendant friend who got it out of China before the Public Security Bureau of China could get a hold of it.”
Tethong says China overtaking Tibet isn’t a prominent subject in international media because it’s such a dominant country in global economy and world trade.
“Some Tibetans are taking their own lives in demonstration of all the atrocities that the Chinese are putting them through,” says Tethong, “while others are risking their lives by fleeing through the Tibetan mountains to escape the Chinese regime.”
The film is being toured through Canada and the US, including lobbying at Parliament Hill and Capitol Hill in hopes to free Wangchun.
Leaving Fear Behind
7 pm, Tuesday, May 8th
James Bay New Horizons (234 Menzies Street)
Admission by donation