Rituals of Resistance

Tenzin Phuntsog and Joy Dietrich, USA, 2018. 63 min.
Content advisory: graphic imagery

In this cinematically rich portrayal, Tibetan-American filmmaker Tenzin Phuntsog explores three paths of resistance through the actions of three generations of exiled Tibetans. A former Tibetan monk broke his vows and became a guerilla leader. The filmmaker’s own mother followed the Dalai Lama’s Middle Path and raised her family in America. A young Tibetan man attempted to self-immolate in 2006. How does the filmmaker understand his place in the struggle?

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About the Speakers

Tenzin Phuntsog is an emerging filmmaker, artist, and educator. He was denied access to enter Tibet and since has made work confronting his peculiar existence of statelessness in exile. His works have screened at international film festivals and museums including the Margaret Mead Film Festival, the Rubin Museum, and many more.

Before finishing his first feature documentary film he dedicated over ten years toward the preservation of rare archival films of Tibet’s bygone era and early exile years. These faithfully restored films have screened at venues around the world, including Cineteca Bologna, Wexner Center, Metrograph, MoMA, National Gallery Singapore, and the Swedish Film Institute.

Tenzin is currently an Assistant Professor of Film and Lens Based Media at Montana State University. He earned an MFA from Columbia University’s Visual Arts Program as a Moving Image Artist and an Agnes Martin Fellow, as well as a BA from the University of California, Los Angeles, in Media Arts. He attended Cineteca Bologna’s Film Restoration Program through a Film Foundation Fellowship.

Joy Dietrich is an award-winning filmmaker who explores themes of adoption, identity, and cultural displacement in the Asian diaspora. Her documentary and fiction films have been screened at international film festivals and museums and broadcast on PBS, earning her multiple director and best film awards. Her experience growing up in America’s heartland as an adoptee born in Korea has shaped her identity and multicultural perspective.

A self-taught filmmaker with an advanced degree in international relations, she began her career as a journalist, honing her skills interviewing public figures and notable individuals at the New York Times, where she was a staff editor for 13 years. She currently teaches film at Montana State University’s School of Film and Photography.