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| A still from the documentary "Becoming Who I Was" directed by Moon Chang-yong and Jeon Jin. / Courtesy of the Berlin Film Festival. |
By Jason Bechervaise
"Becoming Who I Was" directed by Moon Chang-yong and Jeon Jin is an award-winning documentary having accumulated accolades at festivals both home and abroad including the Berlin Film Festival in February where it bagged the Generation Kplus Grand prize.
The film has also secured North American distribution after it was picked up by distributor Bond/360 and will be screened in New York before being released through other digital platforms later this year.
The documentary follows the early life of a young boy called Padma Angdu who discovers he is a reincarnation of a high ranking Tibetan monk. But born in Ladakh, Northern India, the young Rinpoche is displaced in his reincarnation and thus separated from his original monastery and disciples.
With the help of his dedicated godfather, they must embark on a perilous journey across India to seek out a monastery and head towards Tibet after he was banished from his local monastery when his disciples fail to come and find him.
Filmed in parts over a period of eight years, the production was an audacious undertaking fraught with numerous challenges.
In an interview with The Korea Times, Jeon Jin, the co-director and producer of the film, said "The production was of course very difficult. We had to make ends meet by doing broadcast work _ our day jobs _ while making time, money and effort to continue to return to Ladakh to capture their lives when we could _ as a passion project."
Jeon continued "we spent quite a chunk of our time trying to raise funds and attending film markets in order to raise funds that could allow us to continue doing this project. We had to put it off at certain moments in time due to the difficulty we faced financially."
Such difficulties involved in making the film and telling this story meant it was shot over a lengthy period.
Another factor that resulted in a long production duration was because "our main characters put off their journey towards Tibet for over a year due to the real fears that they had because of all the news that they were hearing from Tibetans in exile. They had initially planned to embark on their journey around November 2014, but eventually after some delays, they departed early 2016," Jeon added.
Under the Chinese rule of Tibet, many Tibetan monks including the current Dalai Lama are forced to live in exile as China continues to repress their quest to peacefully return home and find a non-violent resolution.
The harsh weather conditions and high altitudes also brought immense challenges.
"We suffered from high altitude sickness, the minus 20 degree winters with no proper heating system, frozen pipes and no running water for weeks on end so no hot showers, and a lack of abundance in food during winter, as we did home-stays in the remote village of Sakti , were all very real challenges," said Jeon.
But their resolve was not in vain as the film provides an insightful perspective on the difficulties facing Tibetan monks from such a young age, which once again brings to light the wider issues concerning Tibet and its people.
The film's success on the festival market is perhaps attributable at least in part to the film's interesting synergy.
"My experience as a global, Westernized director/producer meeting Moon Chang-yong's exceptionally talented skills as a director from Korea was somewhat difficult yet powerful."
"My Western mindset meeting his [Moon Chang-Yong] Eastern views, as well as a style of shooting on-site, brought together a new dynamic to the film and we tried to tease out those strengths to combine our different backgrounds and understandings into this one film", added Jeon.
Both Jeon and Moon have backgrounds in television with Jeon having produced human-interest documentaries for local broadcasters, which include "Golden Ratio Unveiled" (2014) and the award winning "1 Hectare of Happiness" (2013).
Moon meanwhile has been a documentarian since 1998 and his accolades include "Extreme Job" (2009) and the three-part documentary series titled "Steel Route: the History of Civilization" (2011).
Jeon ,who has lived in ten cities spanning four countries, is delighted with the award they received in Berlin.
"Myself and Moon cannot believe what just happened. It feels unreal. All I know is that this wouldn't have been possible without all the love and support from family, friends and colleagues, who never stopped believing in our seemingly futile efforts _ with no funds and still working tirelessly to pull this through."
"Becoming Who I Was" will be released in Korea in the second half of this year.
Jason Bechervaise is a movie columnist for The Korea Times. He can be reached at jase@koreanfilm.org.uk.
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