Sonthar Gyal

Sonthar Gyal (born 1974) is a Tibetan film director in People's Republic of China. His films include The Sun Beaten Path (2011) and River (2015).[1][2]

Sonthar Gyal
Born1974 (age 45–46)
Tongde County, Qinghai, China
Alma mater
Occupationfilmmaker, cinematographer
Years active2004–present
Chinese name
Chinese松太加
Tibetan name
Tibetanཟོན་ཐར་རྒྱལ།

Biography

Sonthar Gyal was born in Tongde County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai. His father was a primary school teacher who was the first person to graduate from college in the region. Sonthar Gyal studied at the Tsolho Nationalities Teacher Training College in Hainan (Tsolho) Prefecture and taught in the nomadic community for four years. Afterwards he received a scholarship to study fine arts at the Qinghai Normal University in Xining.[3] After graduating in 2003 with a B.A. in Fine Arts, he worked as an art teacher and a curator at the Tongde Cultural Museum.[4]

Although he grew up on the grassland with very few opportunities to watch films (and the ones he watched were in Chinese[5]) he became so fascinated by films that he began to collect scraps of films after each open-air showing. Later, encouraged by his friend Pema Tseden who also hails from Hainan Prefecture,[3] Sonthar Gyal followed him to the prestigious Beijing Film Academy, where he studied cinematography for 2 years with the support of Trace Foundation. Upon graduation, he worked as a cinematographer and artistic director for a series of films and documentaries, many directed by Pema Tseden. He made his directorial debut in 2011 with The Sun Beaten Path.[3]

Filmography
Year English title Tibetan title Notes
2005The Silent Holy Stonesལྷིང་འཇགས་ཀྱི་མ་ཎི་རྡོ་འབུམ།cinematographer, artistic director
2009The Searchའཚོལ།
2011Old Dogཁྱི་རྒན།
The Sun Beaten Pathདབུས་ལམ་གྱི་ཉི་མ།director, screenwriter
2015Riverགཙང་པོ།
2018Ala Changsodirector, screenwriter, producer

Awards and nominations
Year # Award Category Work Result
2011 5th Asia Pacific Screen Award Achievement in Cinematography Old Dog Nominated
Vancouver International Film Festival Dragons & Tigers Award for Young Cinema The Sun Beaten Path Won
Locarno Festival Golden Leopard: Filmmakers of the Present Nominated
Hong Kong International Film Festival Golden DV Award Nominated
FIPRESCI Prize Nominated
Cinemanila International Film Festival Lino Brocka Award Nominated
2012 Deauville Asian Film Festival Lotus: Best Film Nominated
2015 Berlin International Film Festival Crystal Bear, Generation Kplus: Best Film River Nominated
2018 Shanghai International Film Festival Golden Goblet: Grand Jury Prize Ala Changso Won
Golden Goblet: Best Screenplay Won
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References
  1. Dan Smyer Yü (2015). Mindscaping the Landscape of Tibet: Place, Memorability, Ecoaesthetics. Walter de Gruyter. p. 31. ISBN 9781614514237.
  2. Murray, Jeremy A.; Nadeau, Kathleen M. (2016). Pop Culture in Asia and Oceania. ABC-CLIO. p. 146. ISBN 9781440839917.
  3. "An Interview with Sonthar Gyal". Trace Foundation.
  4. "Songtaijia (Sonthar Gyal)". Asia Pacific Screen Awards.
  5. Palden Nyima; Da Qiong (2015-12-11). "Tibetan film plays to Lhasa fans". China Daily.
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