Kiersten Rowland

Here is a picture of the 2 Tibetan film makers whose documentary has landed them in a Chinese prison. They were arrested in March 2008 and their whereabouts is still unknown. Dont forget you can view a trailer of the documentry here

This next article was taken from the Free Tibet website, please click on the link to read what you can do to help these 2 men and many more.

The case
The film Leaving Fear Behind was shot by Dhondup Wangchen, assisted by his friend Jigme Gyatso. They began as complete amateurs, with no filming experience, but with extraordinary determination and courage.
The filmmakers traversed thousands of miles in Tibet, asking ordinary Tibetans what they really feel about the Dalai Lama, China, and the Olympic Games. They gave their subjects the option of covering their faces, but almost all of the 108 people interviewed agreed to have their faces shown on film, so strong was their desire to express their feelings to the world. For the filmmakers, revealing their own identities was always a part of the plan. Fully aware of the risks they took, they rejected anonymity as an option. In order for the film to be made, fear had to be truly left behind.

Dhondup Wangchen was detained by Chinese security authorities on 26 March 2008, only days after delivering his taped interviews to a safe location. He was held in Ershilipu Detention Center, in Xining (Qinghai) for three months. From there he was moved to unofficial detention in Guangsheng Binguan, in Xining. He was last seen in Guangsheng Binguan around 12 July, 2008. On 31 August, Wangchen Dhondup’s brother-in-law went to Ershilipu Detention Centre to meet him but was denied access. He was told that Dhondup Wangchen had committed a serious crime and was a very special case. The trial of Dhondup Wangchen, as well as of Jigme Gyatso, is pending.

Jigme Gyatso a Tibetan Buddhist monk, assisted his friend Dhondup Wangchen in the making of the film. He was last seen in a detention center in the town of Kachu (Chinese: Lingxia, Gansu). His whereabouts are unknown.

Both Dhondup Wangchen and Jigme Gyatso have been tortured. They were tied to a chair for four days and interrogated. The torture was so severe that it left a numb feeling in their hands even weeks later.

Background information on the film makers
Dhondup Wangchen was born in 1974 in Hualong, the northeastern province of Tibet Born into a farming family, he received no formal education. In 1993 Dhondup Wangchen and his cousin Gyaljong Tsetrin made an arduous journey out of Tibet to India, traveling on foot over 5,000 meter passes to meet the Dalai Lama. Soon thereafter he returned to Tibet motivated to work for the benefit of the Tibetan people. He has three children.

During the project, Dhondup Wangchen assumed a code name: Jigme – which means “fearless” in Tibetan. His code name inspired the film’s title: Leaving Fear Behind (in Tibetan, Jigdrel).
Jigme Gyatso (nickname Golog Jigme) was in 1969 in Golog Serthar, in the Kandze region of Kham, the southeastern province of Tibet. He was a monk in Labrang Monastery, Gansu.