Tibetan Film Director Uses Debut Film to Help Orphans:
Neten Chokling Combines Cutting Edge Distribution Methods and Charity
BIR, INDIA --Neten Chokling, a 33 year-old Tibetan lama and filmmaker from Bhutan, defied both skeptics and the odds by successfully completing Milarepa, a full-length feature film about the life of Milarepa, an 11 century yogi and sorcerer who became Tibet 's greatest saint and folk hero. In the process, this soft-spoken lama, took in some 40 destitute young boys, many of them orphans, and found a way to use his movie to help feed, house and care for the boys.
With no major distributor to release Milarepa, despite a successful world premiere at the prestigious Berlin Film Festival, Chokling decided to launch an ambitious DIY (do it yourself) distribution campaign, and earmark his after cost proceeds to support the boys he took in. His distribution plan includes benefit screenings hosted by Sharon Stone and an e-commerce site promoting the Milarepa DVD and soundtrack. ?What Neten Chokling is doing with Milarepa is fantastic, and I am proud to be able to help in promoting the film. The film and his work with orphans reflects the larger human values that connect all of us. Neten Chokling has put it all on the line and now we all need to deliver by helping him,? says Sharon Stone.
Neten Chokling remains unfazed by the odds against Milarepa becoming a big commercial success, and believes that traditional distributors do not understand the breadth and depth of the film's core audience of Western and Asian Buddhists. Chokling says he was drawn to this Tibetan classic which he calls a Buddhist version of a ?rags to riches? fable with an added twist that involves a journey from seeking vengeance to seeking liberation and enlightenment.
In addition to being a filmmaker, Neten Choklin is the spiritual head of an important Tibetan Buddhist lineage, with a monastery of 150 monks in the Indian Himalayan foothills, and an ancient monastery in Tibet housing another 100 monks. Back in India he is busy taking care of the children that he has taken in. It turns out that one of the little adopted ?boys? is actually a diminutive and sick 5 year-old girl. The monks hid her, fearing that she would not be allowed to stay at the monastery. Far from expelling her, he is worried about her health and says her chest is turned in like a little bird and she suffers from frequent nosebleeds. He is arranging for her to be examined by specialists in New Delhi ? an overnight journey from his monastery. Asked if he plans to take in any more orphans, Neten Chokling reflected for a moment and said ?we don't have any more space or money to take care of them, but how can I say no? If we are the only hope for these children, we must find a way and we will find a way?.
Chokling's production company, Shining Moon Productions, will begin rolling out the film this September in a series of benefit screenings and limited commercial engagements. By late November, they will release the DVD, a soundtrack CD and companion DVD set of teachings by the Dalai Lama about Milarepa, all sold exclusively through his e-commerce site, www.milarepamovie.com . After recovery of the film costs, Neten Chokling has pledged to use proceeds for the benefit of his orphans and monks.
