Meltdown in Tibet
 OVERVIEW
Language: English
Country of Origin: Canada
Running Time: 40 Minutes
Medium: HDV
Rights: All Rights Available / Michael Buckley Productions
CAST & CREW
Director: Michael Buckley
Producer: Petr Sevcik
Editor: Michael Buckley, Dave Hardy
Music :Victor Chorobik
Distributor: John Mclain Media - Worldwide
Writer: Michael Buckley
Producer's Representative: Ostrow and Company
REVIEW
The film draws its power and immediacy from the fact that Michael actually rafted down the rivers he discusses, and that he captured on film the spectacular and overwhelming quality of these greatest of Asian waterways. That he secretly filmed some of the very dams the Chinese were building on these rivers, provides the documentary the extra seal of authenticity, as it were… Meltdown in Tibet is a very dramatic, informative and even entertaining film...
--Jamyang Norbu, excerpted from a longer online review at www.phayul.com
[Awarded] For his courage and persistence in shedding light to one of the major environmental issues, namely the potential catastrophic dam building projects in Tibet. A good example of good research and daring independent filmmaking which takes the risk of adopting the role of the active citizen-filmmaker, and with its committed approach, brings light to the enormous risks involved in short-term development activities engaged by governments and major international financial players—which only harm the world’s sustainability.
--Jury Citation for Meltdown in Tibet, recipient of the Vasudha Award
for best film on Environmental Issues, at the IFFI Awards, Goa, India, 2009
SYNOPSIS
Using undercover footage and stills, Meltdown in Tibet blows the lid off China's huge and potentially catastrophic dam-building projects in Tibet. The mighty rivers sourced in Tibet are lifelines to the people of India and Southeast Asia. These rivers are at great risk from rapidly receding glaciers—a meltdown accelerated by climate change—and from large-scale damming and diversion, due to massive Chinese engineering projects. To make way for these hydropowerprojects and for mining ventures, Tibetan nomads are being forced off their traditional grassland habitat—and resettled in bleak villages, where they cannot make a decent living.
Filmmaker Michael Buckley’s personal take on the politics of water in Tibet raises some disturbing questions about a looming eco-disaster. If Himalayan glaciers vanish, what will happen to the rivers of Tibet? What is the fate of people in nations downstream that depend on those rivers? Why is China building so many large dams on the Tibetan plateau? What on earth are China's engineers getting up to? China's plans for this pristine region could well prove disastrous not only for Tibetans, but for the whole of Asia--which relies heavily on rivers sourced in Tibet. |
