Milarepa - debut screening of independent film

Milarepa 6:30 pm, Sept. 30
Wheeler Hall Auditorium, UC Berkeley campus, $15+
benefit screening of full feature independent Tibetan film
for Conservancy of Tibetan Art and Culture and Orphan Project

Tibetan Lama on the Cutting Edge of Indie Film Distribution
One Tibetan lama/film director/actor + 100 monks + a small film crew
Shangri-la Its Not: 40 Orphans to Care for and a Feature Film to Market

BIR, INDIA--Neten Chokling, a soft-spoken 33 year-old Tibetan lama from Bhutan, defied both skeptics and the odds by successfully completing a full-length feature film about the life of Milarepa, an 11th century yogi and sorcerer who became Tibets greatest saint and folk hero.

Making the film was an exercise in controlled chaos, or perhaps insanity, from day one when Chokling and a band of nearly 100 monks, plus a tiny Western film crew, set off for the remote Spiti Valley high in the Himalayas. Filming on a shoestring budget through some of the harshest conditions imaginable, they managed to escape just as the winter snows arrived, sealing the valley off from the rest of the world.

Following an enthusiastic reception at its world premiere at the prestigious Berlin Film Festival, Chokling has launched a self-distribution campaign, complete with an e-commerce site promoting the DVD and soundtrack, and benefit screenings hosted by Sharon Stone.

Neten Chokling is also the spiritual head of an important Tibetan Buddhist lineage, with a monastery of 150 monks in the foothills of the Indian Himalayas. This year, he has taken in 39 young orphan boys and one sick 5 year-old girl. It is a struggle to provide food, shelter, healthcare and education for these hungry and destitute children.

Neten Chokling studied film with Bhutans other film director, Khyentse Norbu (director of The Cup and Travelers & Magicians), and was a principal actor in The Cup and second unit director and occasional stuntman in Travelers. For his directorial debut, Chokling picked Milarepas story, which he calls a Buddhist version of the traditional rags to riches fable. In this story, however, the road from rags to riches involves the journey from seeking vengeance to seeking liberation and enlightenment.

Neten Chokling is unfazed by the odds against Milarepa becoming a big commercial success. He believes his decision to self-distribute the film to its core audience of Western and Asian Buddhists, and its potential crossover audience for exotic films with a spiritual message, and gorgeous Himalayan scenery will over the cost of the film: a portion of the proceeds will be used to provide the necessities for his monks and orphans.

Choklings production company, Shining Moon Productions, will begin rolling out the film this September in a series of benefit screenings and limited commercial engagements. By mid-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.

For more information: 877-697-2998 or visit www.milarepamovie.com