Every year hundreds of Tibetans risk their lives to make a difficult and dangerous trek across the Himalayas, attempting to escape into exile. Those who survive become the newest refugees of a land and culture, which is being systematically dissolved and destroyed by the Central Chinese Government. WE ARE REFUGEES tells the story of two such refugees who escaped to India in 1998. From their tumultuous trip across the mountains to their resettlement in different parts of India, we follow these refugees on a long mission towards survival.
Filmed over the course of 8 months in the mountains of Northern India and Nepal, WE ARE REFUGEES takes us inside the lives and minds of two of Tibet’s newest refugees as they adjust to life in exile. Featuring Lobsang Chenjor, a 68-year-old monk and former political prisoner who escaped to India to “spread the message of what is happening to Tibet.” Also featuring Tsering Lhamo, a 15-year-old girl from Lhasa who escaped to obtain the education she couldn’t receive in Tibet.
Both refugees undergo similar experiences, enduring the dangerous escape, traveling illegally from Nepal into India as well as adjusting to new surroundings, languages and accommodations in their new country. However, what keeps both Tsering and Lobsang optimistic is their hope that they will one day meet H.H. the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual and political leader.
Intimately filmed and featuring a soundtrack from the internationally renowned Tibetan Institute for Performing Arts (TIPA), ‘WE ARE REFUGEES’ provides an eye-opening look at the strength, determination and power of Tibetan culture.
Production
Brian Quist traveled to India in the fall of 1998 to unearth the true stories behind the Tibetan refugee crisis. Quist, a sophomore in college at the time, had met the Dalai Lama a year earlier and had committed himself to making a film which would instigate action and support among the growing student activist community.
Equipped with only a Hi8 camera, a microphone and a tripod Quist spent over eight months living and traveling with the two subjects of his movie. He traveled over 3,000 kilometers across India, on motorcycle and train, following the refugees as they resettled in different parts of India. Instead of editing the film back in the States, Quist decided to edit the film in New Delhi, so that he could premiere it in Dharamsala and show it to both refugees before returning home.
Upon completion WE ARE REFUGEES was invited to screen as part of the Festival of Tibetan film festival in Bombay as well as invitational screenings in New York and Seattle. Since it was completed over 500 copies of WE ARE REFUGEES have been sold and distributed to Tibetan support groups and universities around the world.