2008 Fourth Annual Cross-Cultural Short Film Winner Lynn True and Nelson Walker
Bio
Lynn True and Nelson Walker Director
Lynn True and Nelson Walker are New York-based filmmakers with a particular interest in documentary storytelling. After graduating from Brown University, Nelson began his film career working on documentaries for Discovery Channel, History Channel, and PBS’s NOVA and Lynn worked as an assistant editor for NBC News Productions, PBS and various feature films. Eventually moving on to make their own films, True and Walker first worked together on iThemba|Hope, a documentary portrait of an HIV+ choir from South Africa, which premiered on the Sundance Channel. Their most recent film, Lumo, was a feature-length documentary about a young woman in the Democratic Republic of Congo recovering from traumatic fistula at a hospital for rape survivors. Lumo has screened at dozens of film festivals around the world – winning the President's Award at the Full Frame Film Festival and a Student Academy Award – and was televised on PBS's acclaimed series, P.O.V. True and Walker have worked extensively throughout the Kham region of Tibet and they are the co-founders of the Kham Film Project, an organization that uses filmmaking to contribute to the quality and diversity of Tibetan cultural representation.
Synopsis
A Nomad's Life
 A Nomad's Life is a documentary short that follows a young nomadic family as they attempt to reconcile their pastoral traditions with the challenges of a rapidly modernizing Tibet.
In the high grasslands of eastern Tibet, we meet Locho, Yama and their infant daughter (whom they call “Jiatomah” -- loosely translated as "spiky brown-haired baby”). They spend their summer months in the upper reaches of Jomtod Valley, 15,000 feet above sea level. The Chinese call this region "Wu-Zui" or "5-Most," for its reputation as the highest, coldest, poorest, largest, and most remote area in Sichuan Province. Geographically isolated and highly self-sufficient, nomadic life had changed little since the first nomads domesticated the yak and took to the pastures some 8,000 years ago. But in recent generations, growing pressures from the outside world have revealed unprecedented challenges to these traditions. A Nomad's Life takes an intimate, observational approach in capturing this young family at a crossroads – what nomads are calling duengan or “dark times.” In recent years, the sweep of modernization and urbanization through the region has forced many nomads to leave the pastures for permanent settlement. As Locho and Yama contemplate their future as nomads, they find themselves caught between a deep attachment to the life they know and love and intense |
