Film-maker jailed for letting Tibetans speak

A film-maker has been jailed in China for six years for making a documentary in which ordinary Tibetans praised the Dalai Lama.

The film, Leaving Fear Behind, was shot by Dhondup Wangchen, a Tibetan from a poor farming family in western Qinghai province, and his friend Golog Jigme Gyatso, a monk. The two men had spent several months before the 2008 Beijing Olympics interviewing Tibetans about the upcoming games and their views of the Chinese Government.


Part two. Part three.

The 108 Tibetans spoke with remarkable openness in the interviews and had agreed to show their faces on camera.

The pair had finished shooting the documentary and smuggled the tapes out of Tibet when a riot erupted in the capital, Lhasa, in March 2008. They were arrested a few days later as unrest spread rapidly through Tibetan-populated regions of China.

Full story here.