I recently attended the screening of the world premier of the Nepali film Serdhak – The Golden Hill at SIFF, The Seattle International Film Festival. Following the QnA, I scooped up the young filmmakers, director and star/writer for some Seattle love beyond downtown and their hotel room. Over the years, I’ve visited Nepal 6 times living there for roughly a year and a half and speak almost fluent Nepali. I felt it my responsibility to host these young guys and share my city with them. We went down to Mertle Edwards Park on the Seattle waterfront and enjoyed a gentle breeze and beautiful sunset on a warm night in late May. This is a spontaneous interview we did discussing the making of the film. Follow their progress as the film begins screening internationally at https://www.facebook.com/SerdhakTheFilm Our interview:
On 10.10.10 I participated in a global film project to document life on planet earth. When the final film came out in 2012, I was thrilled to see that 4 of the clips I contributed made it into the final film, and even one into the trailer. I’d contributed content from my friends Justin and Debika’s ‘Hindu lite’ wedding in Philadelphia. On Earth Day, 2012, the film debuted in the general assembly at the UN, and screened in every country around the world. My family was in Boston at the time and we hosted a small community screening in Jamaica Plain. It was a powerful family portrait of the shared human condition, both vibrant and struggling. THe film debuted in the general assembly of the UN and was also screened around the world in all kinds of unique venues. The film Baraka had always been an early inspiration to me and much of my own personal work has been of the archiving of culture, technology, nature, music, labor, food, etc. that I encountered in my travels. The video was all shot spontaneously handheld on a flipcam.
I was totally stoked to learn tonight that Pangeality Productions has been nominated for 2 regional Emmy’s by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The regional chapter includes WA, OR, MT, ID, and AK. Of the 2 stories, which I coproduced with Penny LeGate and were part of a 3 part series connecting Seattle and Nepal for The Seattle Channel, the Little Lama story was nominated in the Human Interest category, and the Bhutanese Refugee story was nominated in the History/Cultural category. Really excited for this. The awards ceremony is June 5th at Snoqualmie Casino with the full red carper and everything. Click here to see the whole list of nominees.
