When the mountains were reborn: a film by Chuljay Lee

When the mountains were reborn: a film by Chuljay Lee

http://whenthemountains.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMn6GvEhIM4

Set in Kham Dechen (Yunnan Xiangelila)

 

From the official website: “Deep in the remote wilderness of the eastern Himalayan, where 6,000 meter peaks plunge into the isolated valley of northwest Yunnan, the documentary WHEN THE MOUNTAINS WERE REBORN  follows two locals on a journey of self-discovery as they are forced to confront the destructive tendencies of the “old ways” and the needs of their communities in order to achieve the ultimate goal: preservation of their native lands. Only in recent decades, as population growth, China’s development boom and a network of new highways have placed incalculable stress on the environment, have the scattered indigenous communities that have survived on hunting and logging timber for generations been forced to adhere to a new set of rules. Now the indigenous young Lisu man, grandson of a hunter, tries to catch the hunters, while the middle aged Tibetan man learns how harmful it is to cut local trees to rebuild his house which was destroyed in a landslide.”

 

Faced with these grim realities, two individuals set out on a quest that will ultimately determine whether the age-old customs and traditions of northwest Yunnan’s mountain  people can evolve and coexist with nature, or destroy their homelands forever.

The two “locals” are an ethnic Lisu and a Tibetan, who must learn that they must sacrifice their desire for modernity, in order to save the environment:

Born into a family of hunters, YANG  XUERONG is a local Lisu in his early twenties  from Laojun Shan. A bad fall as a child left  him with a deep scar on his face and leg  injuries severe enough to prevent him from  hiking in the mountains as a child. Alienated  from his natural surroundings, Yang grew  increasingly apathetic towards nature.

He might have become a hunter like his ancestors and friends for whom Laojun Shan  has been an important hunting ground for  centuries. One day he receives an offer to  join the mountain patrol to put pressure on  locals poaching wildlife in the area and  suddenly he is forced to question his life, his  home and the ways of his people.

 

BAIMAWUXUE ( Pema Osel??) is a Tibetan carpenter from Meili Snow Mountain. In his early 50s, he  has spent the majority of his life logging  forests for timber, building houses for people  in the village and a modest home for his own  family to grow. But fate dealt him another  hand. A few years ago heavy rainfalls above  the village released an enormous landslide  that swept away everything in the blink of an eye. His family in tatters and his house shattered to pieces, Baima began a  desperate quest to recover what was lost by  building a new house. Only this one would be  different than all the other houses he had  ever built.

Director Chuljay Lee, March 25th 2011, said:

“I remember first discussing the possibility of shooting a documentary about the National Park

Projects in Yunnan with The Nature Conservancy. We were sitting in Kunming talking about

exotic wildlife and dramatic mountain scenery, much like many other well-known National

Park documentaries in other parts of the world. We certainly weren’t lacking in beautiful

locations or endangered species, what we lacked was narrative.  But soon after visiting proposed sites it became clear that if we only told the story with

sweeping images of sacred Kawa Kharpo  (Kawagebo  or Meili Snow Mountain) and Golden Monkeys clinging  to the crowns of cypress trees in Laojun Mountain, then we would neglect the most essential  component: the people. A question arose: How is it possible to protect these primeval forests  and ancient hunting grounds without threatening the livelihoods of the tens of thousands of

people that have inhabited these lands for generations?

To do justice to these concerns, we decided to focus on the stories of two local characters

and express the beauty and vitality of nature as it is perceived by those who must struggle to

co-exist with it. Within their stories—from solemn memories to tales of redemption—we find

ourselves getting a sense of the land and its people and considering the human conflict with

nature in a new light. Theirs. “         

This sophisticated propaganda  aimed at behaviour changing Tibetans and other ethnicities was produced by one of the world’s biggest environmental NGOs, The Nature Conservancy, with financial assistance from the French corporation Alstom, the European Union’s Biodiversity Program, China’s Ministry for Environmental Protection     and UN Development Programme.
The director, Chuljay Lee, is a Korean urban sociologist.