Seeds of Tibet: Voices of Children in Exile

Tibetan culture is alive and well...in India. In Mussoorie, located in northern India, refugee children who have fled their Chinese-occupied homeland, are continuing their education and keeping the spiritual tradition alive. Produced by Toby Beach, Peter Yost and Luke Wolbach, Seeds of Tibet "relies solely on children and the Dalai Lama to tell the powerful story of the thousands of Tibetan children who have fled their homeland," and therein lies the problem. Without sufficient cultural context, the Tibetan children's plight sounds very much like that of, say, Guatemalan children: a harrowing journey from a repressive country into an exile from which they one day hope to return with their cultural identity intact. In fact, the only difference here is that these children treat and sometimes openly refer to the Dalai Lama (whose media overexposure recently reached its nadir in a magazine commercial for Apple computer) as a "god." Regardless of one's political and/or spiritual feelings concerning Tibet, the viewer well-versed in the Tibetan conflict will learn nothing new here, while the neophyte is liable to be confused by the Tibetan customs seen (but not explained). I don't mean to sound callous--the stories these children tell bespeak personal courage and commitment far beyond the norm, and they're affecting, as are all stories of children whose lives are buffeted about by the winds (and whims) of political change. Still, Seeds of Tibet, itself, lacks the narrative arc, cultural contextual background, and guiding "voice" that would make it the "powerful story" it claims to be. Winner of several awards, this well-intentioned film is an optional purchase. Aud: I, J, H, C, P. (R. Pitman)