Director: Dan Smyer Yu
Pre-production fieldwork: Dan Smyer Yu
Film type: documentary
Length: 55 min.
Synopsis: This ethnographic film documents a pilgrimage of lamas, scholars, writers, filmmakers, and students to Mt. Amne Machen (Amne Machin), one of the nine Tibetan sacred mountains, located in Golok, Amdo, currently in Qinghai Province of China. Most pilgrims, as an integral part of the film crew, are both behind and forefront of different scenes. The film crew pulls its focus on how Amne Machen symbolizes home, belonging, and humanization of one’s native landscape. As Amne Machen is known as lha-ri or “soul-mountain” to which local communities and prominent historical figures entrust their collective memories, the sense of home and place-making are the primary topics of the pilgrims’ reflections. Through the narratives of the pilgrims and cinematic capturing of the awe-inspiring landscape of the mountain, this film relives powerfully gripping moments when place becomes a placeless, flowing cultural consciousness in the minds of the pilgrims.
