The Red Door. A F i l m b y T a s h i G y e l t s h e n. 15 min/ Language - Dzongkha (with English subtitles)

Transcription

1 The Red Door A F i l m b y T a s h i G y e l t s h e n 15 min/ Language - Dzongkha (with English subtitles) Tashi Gyeltshen Mobile : emadatsi@hotmail.com Thimphu Kingdom of Bhutan 1

2 Synopsis A man wakes up to the sound of water drops leaking from the sky of his bleak world. A contact with the outside world comes through a mobile phone devoid of human connect. The journey begins with the man carrying a red door through a lush, green field full of promise of bountiful harvest. The quest continues through a maze of trees but never leaving the trodden path. Then he crosses a bridge to the second half of life where he clambers up a rugged and withering landscape. He reaches a world of mute, standing stones. From the opulent green to the world of withered and unappealing brown, and finally he reaches the mountaintop tired, he enters the door and says, Mother, I am home and goes to sleep. Maybe death is as mundane as opening a door. When we die, we just enter another door, and say, Mother, I am home. Perhaps we never die; we only enter another door into another world. We would only enter, enter into new life again and again and again. We never exit. If there is reincarnation, then death is birth. You are born again. There is no death. 2

3 Director s Statement The film The Red Door came out of a sacred space within my being. It s like the unfurling of my inner thangka (a traditional Buddhist painting). A story is meant to be set free. And in doing so I liberate myself because I am the story. At the microcosmic, personal level the film is my expression of a tragic event of my 22-year-old nephew s suicide in June Making the film was my way to console myself. It was my cry. It was made to save my own sanity. As Jose Saramago said, there are times when we would die if we did not weep. The only way I could weep was to make a film. At another level, The Red Door is a metaphorical journey of a man, traversing through different stages of life depicted through the changing landscapes. No matter how high we climb up, be it our assumed wisdom, experiences or age, The Red Door accompanies the journey. We carry our own death. Ultimately we have to open the door. The fundamental question is, do we really have to enter or exit? We do because we have build walls around us. Without the walls we would not have to exit. We would only enter. I want to believe that when you die, you would just enter another door and say, mother, I am home. We would only enter, enter into new life again and again and again. If there is reincarnation, then death is birth. If I lost a nephew I know that somewhere someone gained a nephew. If my sister lost a son, I hope that somewhere a mother s dream got fulfilled. 3

4 Director s Biography Tashi Gyeltshen worked as a journalist in the national newspaper of Bhutan, Kuensel and later as an editor of a private newspaper, Bhutan Times before delving into filmmaking. A self-taught filmmaker, Tashi learnt the art of filmmaking largely by reading and watching films extensively. He worked as an assistant director in a film production company in Bangkok, Thailand for few months where he experienced the ground reality of making a film. He wrote and directed a short film Girl With a Red Sky, a story on AIDS, produced and commissioned by Youth Development Fund, Bhutan and UNICEF. He made his second short called A Forgotten Story. In 2011 he also wrote and directed a documentary on 25 years of Taekwondo in Bhutan for Bhutan Taekwondo Federation. In 2009, he won the Best Screenplay Award at the Bhutan s National Film Awards. The Red Door is his third short. Tashi Gyeltshen occasionally writes for the newspapers and magazines, and is also into poetry. He won the National Quiz Championship in In run up to the 2nd general election of Bhutan of 2013 he was also a media adviser to a political party. Before making his first feature, he wants to complete the Red trilogy title with a short called The Red Phallus by mid Tashi is also working on his first feature. 4

5 Cast : Karma Wangchuk Karma Wangchuk is a Bhutanese artist and filmmaker, who has written and directed a short film and a documentary both of which were broadcast on Bhutanese national television. He has also worked as a host, in a Bhutanese travel show, and a documentary from India produced by Milky Liars Productions (not released yet). Karma Wangchuk also acted in Tashi Gyeltshen s first short The Girl with a Red Sky. As an artist, Karma is a part of a small group of pioneering Bhutanese contemporary artists, trying to fuse tradition with modernity and abstract elements through their paintings. His works have been exhibited in-group exhibitions in Bhutan, Japan, Thailand and Bangladesh. He is currently preparing for his first solo exhibition to be held this coming spring in Bhutan along with a short film that he hopes to premiere simultaneously on the opening night of the art exhibition. Music : Jigme Drukpa Jigme Drukpa was born in 1969 in Pemagatshel district in southeast Bhutan. Seeds of his interest in music were sown very early. When he turned nine, he taught himself how to play on a fipple flute in loneliness as a cow-herder helping his parents during his winter holidays from school. He learnt to sing and play on the harmonica (mouth organ) in Wamrong Primary School, then the nearest boarding school to his village. In 1983, Jigme moved to Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan, where he met Ap Dawpel, the doyen of Bhutanese folk music. Since then, there was no looking back. Motivated to carry on with music, he travelled to Norway in 1993, and joined Rauland Academy in 1994 to pursue studies on music after a year s course of Norwegian language. Six years later in 1999, Jigme returned to Bhutan as the country s first Ethnomusicologist from Grieg Academy, Institute for Music, University of Bergen. The six years in Norway gave him enough exposure to explore his musical horizons and identity as he could travel and perform in almost all the Nordic countries and a few other countries in Europe including France, Switzerland and Germany. 5

6 Besides collaborating with several musicians from other cultures and giving live performances in over 200 cities worldwide in 31 countries in the past two and a half decades. Today, Jigme s music can be heard in a number of documentaries, short/feature films and major productions including Travellers and Magicians, Taking the Middle Path to Happiness, and recently The Red Door. As a songwriter and folk performer, Jigme Drukpa has seven solo audio albums to his credit. Camera : Kinzang Namgay Kinzang Namgay comes from the district of Samdrup Jongkhar in eastern Bhutan. He has been in the Bhutanese film industry for about two decades now and has a huge experience having worked in almost every capacity from cameraman to editor to directing a feature, documentaries, commercials and even TV series. He also worked as a technical director for a Theatre show called Galem Gi Lu which was shown at Indian Council for Cultural Relations in Kolkata and Delhi, India during the South Asian Women Festival. He was the DOP of a documentary called 86 cm on mitigation of Thorthormi Glacial Lake in Lunana, northern Bhutan, which was shown in the USA and Europe too. In 2010, Kinzang Namgay traveled to Benin and Costa Rica as a cameraman and technical director in a Cultural Exchange Program between Benin, Costa Rica and Bhutan, a project of Program for South South Corporation. Editor : Choling Choling graduated from Sherubtse College in Bhutan. When he is not editing Choling works as the station manager of Centennial Radio, a local entertainment radio channel in Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan. The former is his passion and the latter, his regular job. 6

7 In the past few years, Choling has channeled his creative energies in learning the art and craft of visual editing. He may not have totally mastered the art but he is among the few Bhutanese editors who have taken visual editing seriously and wants to focus only on editing. Though he is self-taught, he has already edited two Bhutanese feature films, several commercials and documentaries. The Red Door is the first short film he edited and also the first with the director Tashi Gyeltshen. Assistant Director : Kinley Tshering Kinley Tshering started his career as a journalist with Bhutan s first private newspaper, Bhutan Times, in That was the time when Bhutan was at the cusp of introducing democracy. In 2008, he went to do his Masters in Convergent Journalism at AJK Mass Communication & Research Center in New Delhi, India. There, he was introduced to television and filmmaking, something that instantly grabbed his imagination. Kinley Tshering worked on several commercials before he got his break to work as an Assistant Director of The Red Door. He dreams of making a feature film one day. 7

8 Credits Director Cast Editor Camera Music Assistant Director Assistant Cameraman Story/concept Post Production Supervisor Color Colorist Digital Conform Assistance Digital Conform Sound Editor/Re-recording mixer Sound Editor Foley Artist Foley Recordist Foley Editor Recording in Bhutan Production Manager Post production support Producer Tashi Gyeltshen Karma Wangchuk Choling Kinzang Namgay Jigme Drukpa Kinley Tshering Sonam Rinzin Tashi Gyeltshen Chartchai Ketnust White Light Studio, Thailand Chaitawat Thrisansri Sittiporn Rungworakhun Teeranuwat Chanapai Akritchalerm Kalayanamitr Chalermrat Kaweewattana Chumnan Chuponkrang Wipooh Wisaritpaisan Jarean Pugjanasank Jarean Pugjanasank Narubett Peamyai Panpakorn Boonyakiate TG Media & Infotainment Pema Khandu bhutan+partners and Film Trust Fund, Royal Office of Media, His Majesty s Secretariat. Tashi Gyeltshen Thank you for contributing Tenzin Drakpa, Tashi Dorji, Chencho Tshering, Garab Dorji, Tashi Phuntsho, Aby Tharakan, Tara Limbu, Pelden Dorji, Lhakpa Dorji, Lhaki Delma, Kinga Lhamo, Dechen Roder, Chand Rai, Tenzin Tshering, Ugyen Wangchuk, Dorji Wangchuk, Pema Lhaden, Khampa, Khandu. Tashi Delek! 8