What Remains of Us

Description

Official Selection Cannes International Film Festival
Audience Award Atlantic International Film Festival
Canadian Award – Best Feature FilmAtlantic International Film Festival
Best International Documentary Hollywood Film Festival
Most Popular Canadian Film Vancouver International Film Festival
Canada’s Top Ten Toronto International Film Festival Group
Nomination for Best Documentary Genie Awards
Award for Best of Festival Telluride Mountainfilm Festival
Best Documentary Film Prix Jutra, Montreal
Audience Award Festival du Film des Droits de la Personne
First Prize, Grand Prix Sergio Vieira de Mello Human Rights Film Festival
Special Mention, Norvegian Peace Film Award Norway International Film Festival
Annie Jean: Best Editing: Public Affairs, Documentary Prix Gémeaux
Best Script: Documentary Prix Gémeaux

Synopsis

Kalsang Dolma, a young Tibetan refugee in Quebec, crosses the Himalayas. Into the largest prison in the world, she carries a video message recorded by the Dalai Lama. Since 1950, Tibetans inside the country have been hoping that China will allow him to return. Families gather around the tiny screen, transfixed, and for the first time, the voices of this fragile people under the yoke of suffering reach us from across the distance.

Shot between 1996 and 2004 without the knowledge of the Chinese authorities, using small digital cameras, “What Remains Of Us” takes viewers to the heart of the tragedy that has consumed Tibetan society for over half a century. The film tackles the crucial issue of individual and collective responsibility towards three generations of Tibetans who, despite the disappearance of 1.2 million of their fellow citizens, have always refused to yield to violence.

Director

François Prévost

François Prévost’s directing career had an unlikely beginning. A 38-year-old physician born in Montmagny, Prévost practiced medicine in the Far North and frequently traveled deep into Tibet. It was his love of Tibet that inspired him to participate in the Radio-Canada program La Course Destination Monde. It was while working as a directing intern on the Radio-Canada newsmagazine Le Point that François Prévost made his second trip to Tibet. Together with Hugo Latulippe, his friend and fellow director, he produced a first report for Le Point and returned to Montreal determined to do something for Tibet. It took eight years to bring “What Remains Of Us,” one of the rare films shot entirely in Tibet, to the screen.

Hugo Latulippe

In 1994-95 Hugo Latulippe traveled around the world as part of the Radio-Canada competition La Course Destination Monde. In 1996-97 he crisscrossed North America making 60 short films for the TV5 program “Bons baisers d’Amérique.” Then, as a staff director with the National Film Board’s Culture and Experimentation Studio, he made the documentary “Voyage au nord du monde” with the painter Réal Bérard. With “What Remains Of Us,” Hugo Latulippe is again speaking out against the dehumanization of the world.