Free Tibet: 100K in SF Unite for Tibetan Freedom Concert

Free Tibet is a film that covers the Tibetan Freedom concert that was held at San Francisco in 1996. Through this documentary, performances during the show that attracted more than 100,000 people to the Golden Gate Part are featured. The performances and other reactions from the crowd are used to create an educative impact on the viewer. Through this production, the Milarepa Fund's objective is to promote the existence of a society free of violence, but characterized by compassion. It was Beastie Boys' Adam Yauch and Erin Potts that founded the Milarepa allowing the Free Tibet to latter entertain and, at the same time, enlighten its audience. These film goes on to include such vital elements of mobilization as interviews from critical leaders in the Tibet as Dalai Lama, and some of the individuals who had survived rape and other forms of brutality. Despite its focus and informative voice on the Tibet issue, the film does not have a dispassionate view concerning the geopolitics that affect the Tibetans (Lama, 2018).

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Sarah Pirozek was the director behind the creation of Free Tibet. Her interest was basically on the development of television commercials, short films like in advertisements and documentaries. She was born in British and based in New York. To communicate the hostility with which the Chinese reign had on the Tibetan citizen, Pirozed directed this documentary on the Tibetan Free Concert in the year 1998. Photography, a key element on which the stories are told, was directed by Evan Bernard, Spike Jonze, and Roman Coppola. While Paola Heredia edited the film, it was produced by the Milarepa Fund with the Shooting Gallery taking credit for its release. The 90 minutes long film has its cast as a tribe. The tribe is known as the Quest, Sonic Youth, Beastie Boys, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Beck, Rage Against the Machine, Bjork, Pavement, Foo Fighters, John Lee Hooker and the Fugees. The tribe helps the development of the film's educative objective on the Tibetan's situation in addition to the entertainment it gave its audience.

My understanding of the movie is a light in the violation of human rights based on the power that dominant forces may have over the minority groups in society. The dominant force in Free Tibet is the Chinese authority, while Tibetans are the minority group. Tibetan culture is a non-violent one, hence values and protects human rights, but this culture has been subjugated from as far as the 1950s by China. The communist regime that was adopted by China is responsible for the invasion that Tibet encountered from China. The attack helped China enjoy the vast natural resources in the less populated Tibet that would not fight back but negotiate for survival. In exchange, Tibetan Buddhism and Tibet's political system were to be protected by the Chinese government. This agreement was never honored, and as a result, many Tibetan were killed as they gathered at Potala Palace located in Lhasa. They came to protect Dalai Lama from assassination or kidnapping, allowing Lama a chance to escape into exile. 10 March 1959 (Bracewell, 2018).

When the sovereignty of a state is tempered with, the main targets are its leaders. The elimination of such leaders as Dalai Lama would have been the strategy through which the oppressive power of China would have used in its pursuit of terminating the Tibetan independence that had been in existence for less than 40 years. To save his life, Lama ran for exile in India alongside other refugees. The Tibetans that were left in China have proved to be repulsive in the modern days against the Chinese leadership. The leadership denies them the right to speak and hence their opposition to the Chinese rule. All they fight for is for the protection of their identity as Tibetan, the return of exiled Lama, their freedom, and protection of human rights. Every Tibetan looks forward to that day when they have Independence from Rangzen, which stands for the same meaning. Through the Free Tibet film, Tibet fights for control over Tibetan affairs. This can be achieved even when Tibet is a part of the People's Republic of China. Dalai Lama, the 14th advocates for this right as proposed in the year 1980s. Even when Lama is in exile, it is through the Middle Way Approach that his established democratic government pushes for this agenda (Gurung, 2017).

The interviews and pictures through this documentary help in understanding how human rights were violated, based on the experiences that monks and nuns went through. As a result of the war, women's rights are violated. The nuns were raped in addition to physical and psychological torture. Monks and other nuns were imprisoned, tortured, and executions conducted by the Chinese led o their deaths (Gurung, 2017).

My understanding of the American culture is affected in such a way that I do not expect any state collaborations between the United States and a state that violates human rights. Through the film, Pirozek displays Lama's address to the congress and the announcement made by Clinton. In his statement, Clinton, despite his awareness of Chinese brutality on Tibetans, is willing to continue the actual trading of goods with the Chinese. I would have expected termination of the existing business engagements between the Clinton's and the Chinese administration until human rights violations were dealt with (Bracewell, 2018).

My understanding of Buddhism from the film is of a culture that is neglected. Even in the way that Pirozek organizes the snippets. This is a culture that is becoming extinct, hence the interest of the audience is proof to it. This is an essential educative aspect in the film, most of the audience have their attention on the bands, other than on observing Tibetan Buddhism. Additionally, the musical representation by such artists as Red Hot Chili Peppers, De La Soul, Bjork, Fugees, Smashing Pumpkins, and the Beastie Boys were excellent. What frustrates is the presence of snippets borrowed from the eclectic lineup. This misrepresentation serves to question how the right decisions like human rights protection can be known by many. Yet, some adamantly choose to violate them, while others offer their support to the inhuman treatment of fellow human beings (Lopez, 2018).

For this reason, in the late 1980s, Lama noted that Tibetans' dreams of independence would not be achieved. Instead, he proposed that China gained autonomy and that they are allowed to preserve their culture and religion. This request was, however, rebuffed (Gurung, 2017).

Even when Buddhism appears to be neglected, Tibetans have served to preserve it against extinction for a long time; hence they are rising against China. This move has been boosted by Hollywood participation in the Free Tibet movement (Lopez, 2018). This movement motivates not only the United States but also the entire Western governments to join in discouraging China from its harsh treatment of the Tibetans. The short clips plaid observes this while Clinton proposes to continue engaging with China despite their human rights violations, as expressed by an address from the Lama to congress. This address is agenda-setting, and any state or individual, or the media restores hope to humankind regarding rising against human rights violations. Such a plan may have such impacts as a review of policies by different states. The revised policies would have elements of engagements that determine the code of standards that include human rights in their decision making for state agreements.

This film is so crucial and has a broad audience, a chance that would have been used to condemn the violation of human rights openly. Instead, the film has no instance of head-on encounters that aim at addressing the real issue. The film packaging is similar to that of a concert tour, and its distribution from one city to another ensures that there are no conflicts while mobilizing individuals on the importance of human rights. This approach serves to prevent further escalations in human rights violations as the film can be classified as both educative ad entertaining at the same time.

The religious issues that the film addresses are Buddhism, as detailed by Palden Gyatso-la. This monk suffered more than 33 years of torture that the Chinese prison had to offer. Instead of possessing a wave of anger and hateful tone, Gyatso-la states that the film, which covers the way of life of his fellow tribesmen, was an answer to a prayer. The culture is portrayed as one that values human rights and believes in the other human being's capacity to act justly. The same case can be revealed by the 14th Dalai Lama, whose footage was obtained from a film dated back in 1992 with the title, "Compassion in Exile" (Bracewell, 2018).

Free Tibet, depicts people with the desire to preserve their religion, advocate for human rights protection, and the return of their leader from exile. The ruthless Chinese authority over Tibetan is condemned, and solidarity between the exiled Tibetan and those who still live under the autocratic Chinese leadership highlighted. When human rights are respected, different nations live in harmony, but the violation of human rights will always result in disputes.

The Tibetan tradition has a significant role in the story in that there must be an aspect that serves to remind a keen audience of the devotion of the Tibetans to their cultural preservation practices. The struggles between China and Tibet arises when China wants to instill its Dalai Lama on the religious leadership of Tibet. This proposal is opposed to the devotion that Tibetan have to their religious and cultural preservation. Geshe Nyingje Rabayang observes how music fans and activist fans are brought together with a thin separation between them by the impacts of the film. She then relates such attendance to the attention that Tibetans would show to a significant spiritual meetup. Religious issues in this story are, therefore, introduced as a way of uniting a particular community of individuals. This unity is portrayed as one that has respect for human rights and serves to uphold the dignity of every human being.

References

Bracewell, K. (2018). Human Rights and Buddhism: A Social Injustice Perspective. International Journal of Multicultural and Multireligious Understanding, 5(2), 111-117.

Gurung, T. D. (2017). Is the Free Tibet movement a lost cause?

Lama, D. (2018). The Dalai Lama's Little Book of Inner Peace: The Essential Life and Teachings. Hampton Roads Publishing.

Lopez Jr, D. S. (2018). Prisoners of Shangri-la: Tibetan Buddhism and the west. University of Chicago Press.