Khashyar | January 25, 2009

The screenings of “Dalai Lama Renaissance” at the Cleveland Museum of Art on Friday January 23 and Sunday January 25 were resounding successes.

On Sunday, there was such a demand from audiences to buy tickets and see “Dalai Lama Renaissance,” that a second theater was opened to simultaneously screen the film for the overflow audience.

Both theaters where sold out for the Sunday 1:30 p.m. screening, and there were over 2 dozen people at the ticket booth who wanted to see “Dalai Lama Renaissance,” but were not able to.

John Ewing, the film programmer for the Cleveland Museum of Art, told an audience before the Sunday screening of “Dalai Lama Renaissance” that this was the first time in 25 years that a film screening at the Cleveland Museum of Art sold out two theaters during the same scheduled time.

Both audiences filled one theater afterwards for a 40 minute question and answer session with Producer-Director Khashyar Darvich, a former Cleveland resident and Baldwin-Wallace College graduate who had not been in the city for 7 years.

“Coming to the midwest and screening “Dalai Lama Renaissance” for Ohio audiences feels like a homecoming.

Darvich grew up in Oxford, Ohio for 15 years, before moving to Cleveland for college.

“Dalai Lama Renaissance” and Darvich will also appear in other Ohio cities:

-January 26 - Ohio Northern University in Ada, Ohio
-January 27 - Bowling Green University in Huron, Ohio
-January 28 - Oxford Community Arts Center in Oxford, Ohio
-January 31 - February 4 - Drexel Theater in Columbus, Ohio

Category: News about "Dalai Lama Renaissance", Screenings and Events for "Dalai Lama Renaissance" (discussions and info) | No Comments »
Tags: overflow audience, record turnout, Screenings

Khashyar | January 10, 2009

Cleveland Museum of Art Hosts First-run Film Fridays

CLEVELAND, OH.- The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) has the recipe to spice up your date-nights this winter. Each Friday night, from January through mid-March, CMA will host the Cleveland-area premiere of a new international film – 11 movies in all. The film series offers something for everyone with topics ranging from a famous football game to an infamous plane crash, and genres spanning comedy to documentary. Most of the films will repeat on Sunday afternoons.

In January, a director with a Cleveland-connection joins the museum to host the premiere of his new documentary. Khashyar Darvich, a Baldwin Wallace alum, will present his film, Dalai Lama Renaissance, and will answer audience questions after the screening. The documentary, narrated by Harrison Ford, chronicles a recent gathering of the Dalai Lama and 40 of the world’s most innovative thinkers as they ponder answers to the world’s problems.

(from: http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=27815)

Category: News, News about "Dalai Lama Renaissance", Reviews and Articles about "Dalai Lama Renaissance", Screenings and Events for "Dalai Lama Renaissance" (discussions and info) | No Comments »
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Khashyar | January 10, 2009

Arts and Entertainment
Best Bets
By The Denver Post

Film

Sunday-Wednesday. Documentary. Director Khashyar Darvich’s well-traveled, festival-circuit fave “Dalai Lama Renaissance” begins a four-evening run at the Oriental Theater starting Sunday. Narrated by Harrison Ford, the documentary follows the journey of 40 scholars, scientists, artists as they head to Dharmasala to meet with the Tibetan holy man. Deep intentions don’t save the confab from some very human tensions. 7 p.m. $10. Oriental Theater at 4335 W. 44th Ave, 303-455-2124. theorientaltheater.com. Lisa Kennedy

from: http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_11403046

Category: News, News about "Dalai Lama Renaissance", Reviews and Articles about "Dalai Lama Renaissance", Screenings and Events for "Dalai Lama Renaissance" (discussions and info) | No Comments »
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Khashyar | January 10, 2009

Hi Everyone,

I was fortunate enough to receive tickets to attend the January 20th Presidential Inauguration in Washington D.C.

I contacted all three of my Congressional Representatives the morning of the election, and learned in December that I received 2 tickets.

I appreciate the opportunity to attend this historic moment.

Because I thought that I might receive tickets, our “Dalai Lama Renaissance” team began scheduling screenings of the film in Ohio and Pennsylvania, so that I could combine work, seeing my family (who live in Washington D.C. and Maryland), and attending the inauguration.

I will try to take some video and post it.

Khashyar Darvich
Producer-Director
“Dalai Lama Renaissance”

Category: Misc, News | 2 Comments »
Tags: barack obama, presidential inauguration, washington d c

Khashyar | January 1, 2009

Hello Everyone,

There is a new documentary about Amit Goswami that is very close to being released entitled “The Quantum Activist.”

It looks like a very interesting film that takes an in-depth look in the Amit’s work as a Quantum Physicist, as he bridges the gap between quantum physics and spirituality.

The official website for ”The Quantum Activist” Documentary film is here: http://quantumactivist.com/

And Amit Goswami’s Official Website: http://www.amitgoswami.org/

Here is the trailer for “The Quantum Activist”:

 

 

“The Quantum Activist” looks very interesting and worth watching.

Khashyar Darvich
www.DalaiLamaFilm.com

Category: Misc | No Comments »
Tags: Amit Goswami, Quantum Activist, Quantum Physics

Khashyar | January 1, 2009

Obama Encourages President to Urge Tibet Resolution

Friday, March 28, 2008

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) today sent the following letter to President Bush, calling on him to employ every diplomatic tool to persuade Chinese President Hu Jintao to make significant progress in resolving the Tibet issue. Given the recent events in Tibet and the upcoming Beijing Olympics, Obama asks President Bush to encourage the Chinese government to negotiate with the Dalai Lama, guarantee religious freedoms for the Tibetan people, protect Tibetan culture and language, and support the exercise of genuine autonomy for Tibet. Obama also supports Bush’s insistence that foreign press and diplomatic personnel have free access to Lhasa and other Tibetan cities and villages to ensure that repression and human rights violations cannot escape the world’s notice.

The text of the letter is below:

Dear Mr. President:

The situation in Tibet is deeply disturbing, and requires that all of us, regardless of party, do what we can to try to influence it for the better. I understand that you discussed the subject on Wednesday with President Hu Jintao. The United States has many issues for which China’s cooperation is important, including denuclearization of North Korea, ending Iran’s nuclear program, stopping the genocide in Darfur, confronting repression in Burma, and combating global warming. However, it is important that we give high priority to the plight of Tibetans and make clear to President Hu that the way in which China treats all Chinese citizens, including Tibetans, profoundly affects how China is viewed in the United States and throughout the international community.

Resolution of differences between the Chinese Government and the Dalai Lama is the key to progress in Tibet. The Dalai Lama, as you have said, is “a good man.” He is revered by virtually all Tibetans, and his absence from his homeland creates an incurable wound in the heart of Tibetan Buddhism. Tibet’s unique cultural and religious heritage cannot be preserved if he is demonized and kept at arm’s length. He has accepted Beijing’s precondition for a solution, namely recognition that Tibet is part of China, and has clearly stated that he is seeking religious, cultural and linguistic protection and autonomy for the Tibetan people, not independence. More recently, he indicated his belief that despite recent events, the Chinese people deserve to host the Olympics this summer.

I hope you made clear to President Hu the American view about the importance of the following: a negotiation with the Dalai Lama about his return to Tibet; guarantees of religious freedom for the Tibetan people; protection of Tibetan culture and language; and the exercise of genuine autonomy for Tibet. That is the path to the stability and harmony that the Chinese leaders say they are seeking in Tibet.

In addition to your personal intervention with President Hu, there are other steps I hope you will take to highlight our concern. I support your call for the foreign press and diplomatic personnel to have free access to Lhasa and other Tibetan cities and villages to ensure that repression and human rights violations cannot escape the world’s notice. Beijing has committed to the International Olympic Committee to allow foreign journalists free access to cover stories throughout China, including Tibet. We should hold them to that commitment. The U.S. and our democratic allies and friends should also urge the UN Human Rights Council to send an investigatory team to Tibet. China should be encouraged to allow the International Committee for the Red Cross to visit prisons in Tibet to ensure that detainees are not held under inhumane conditions, tortured, or mistreated.

Like you, I want to take steps that increase the chance of a negotiated solution between Beijing and the Dalai Lama, and that have the best chance of improving the lives of ordinary Tibetans. Therefore, I support your effort to aggressively use your relationship with President Hu to achieve these goals. Should it appear, however, that the Chinese are taking private diplomacy as a license for inaction or continued repression, I would urge you to speak out forcefully and publicly to disabuse them of the notion that they can thus escape international censure.

Despite the high emotions of the present time, I hope you can persuade the Chinese leadership that in this the year of the Beijing Olympics they have a unique opportunity to make dramatic progress in resolving the Tibet issue. Chinese leaders have it within their power to achieve that worthy goal if they take steps to change the situation in Tibet for the better and by reaching an accommodation with the Dalai Lama. Progress in Tibet would profoundly affect the world’s perception of China as it prepares to host the Olympic Games in August.

Sincerely,

 

Barack Obama

United States Senator

Category: News, The Dalai Lama, Tibet | No Comments »
Tags: beijing olympics, chinese government, chinese president hu, Dalai Lama, human rights violations, president hu jintao, senator barack obama, tibet issue, tibetan culture, tibetans

Khashyar | January 1, 2009

The first major popular film reference to the Dalai Lama that I could find is from the 1980 Bill Murray film, Caddyshack.

In the film, Murray plays golf course groundskeeper Carl Spackler at the Bushwood Country Club:

“So I jump ship in Hong Kong and make my way over to Tibet, and I get on as a looper at a course over in the Himalayas….So, I tell them I’m a pro jock, and who do you think they give me? The Dalai Lama, himself. Twelfth son of the Lama. The flowing robes, the grace, bald… striking.

So, I’m on the first tee with him. I give him the driver. He hauls off and whacks one - big hitter, the Lama - long, into a ten-thousand foot crevasse, right at the base of this glacier. Do you know what the Lama says? Gunga galunga… gunga, gunga-galunga.

So we finish the eighteenth and he’s gonna stiff me. And I say, ‘Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know.’ And he says, ‘Oh, uh, there won’t be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness.’ So I got that goin’ for me, which is nice.”

Khashyar Darvich
www.DalaiLamaFilm.com

Category: Misc, The Dalai Lama | No Comments »
Tags: bill murray, bill murray film, caddyshack, Dalai Lama

Khashyar | January 1, 2009

by Khashyar Darvich
www.DalaiLamaFilm.com

LOS ANGELES-In an attempt to punish criticism of its policies and of its government, the People’s Republic of China maintains a blacklist, a list of individuals who are not permitted to enter China and/or Tibet.

It is widely reported, for example, that actor Richard Gere is banned from entering China because of his support for the Tibetan independence movement and the Dalai Lama.

Also, after Harrison Ford spoke before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee in support of Tibet, the Chinese government banned Ford from visiting Tibet.

Actress Sharon Stone’s films are banned in China after she made a comment that perhaps the large Earthquake in China that occurred in China in May of 2008 was a result of karma because of the occupation of Tibet by China:

“I’m not happy about the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans, because I don’t think anyone should be unkind to anyone else,” Stone said in a brief red carpet interview with Cable Entertainment News of Hong Kong. “And then all this earthquake and all this stuff happened, and then I thought, is that karma? When you’re not nice that the bad things happen to you?”

Actor Brad Pitt was reported to be banned from entering the Chinese mainland for life after starring in the film “Seven Years in Tibet,” which presents a sympathetic portrait of the Dalai Lama.

Film Director Martin Scorcese is banned from entering Tibet after he directed the feature film “Kundun,” which is about the early life of the Dalai Lama and the brutal Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1950.

Documentary filmmakers like “Dalai Lama Renaissance” producer-director Khashyar Darvich, who have made films that portray the Dalai Lama in a positive light, and that present a view of the Chinese invasion of Tibet that the Chinese government does not agree with, are also probably banned from entering Tibet.

Khashyar Darvich
www.DalaiLamaFilm.com

Category: News, The Dalai Lama, Tibet | No Comments »
Tags: actor brad pitt, actor richard gere, chinese invasion of tibet, Dalai Lama, earthquake in china, film kundun, martin scorcese, senate foreign relations, senate foreign relations committee, seven years in tibet, tibetan independence, u s senate