Synopsis

SYNOPSIS

Ani Bond: Choying Drolma is a documentary about Choying Drolma, an acclaimed but controversial “rock-star” Nepali nun, fighting for gender equality in a patriarchal culture while searching for personal freedom by reconciling with her abusive father.

Choying Drolma, a child of forced marriage and a victim of domestic violence, seeks refuge in a Tibetan Buddhist monastery where she learns to sing. An American musician brings her music to the United States of America, from where she starts her global music journey. However, some believe nuns should not sing, and her concert is boycotted in Hong Kong. Despite such criticism, Choying Drolma becomes a rock-star nun, fighting for girls’ education with her heavenly voice on the world stage. She founds a modern school for girls, builds a hospital in Kathmandu, addresses gender equality in the United Nations, calls for educational reform in Abu Dhabi, appeals for world peace in Europe, and becomes a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. However, a dark cloud remains in her heart since she cannot free herself emotionally from the past. She decides to fulfill her late father’s last wish in his Tibetan hometown in Qinghai, China.

By weaving Ani Choying’s journey with the life stories of the nuns, the film shines a light on gender inequality beyond individual families, while making a plea for inner contemplation on the universal path to personal freedom.

ANI CHOYING DROLMA

A rock-star singing nun

A warrior with the weapon of Love and Compassion

A woman who refuses to bow to fate

The first know-how-to-drive Nepali nun

ANI CHOYING DROLMA,

as in James Bond the fictional hero, is

"the woman for whom no mission is impossible,

who keeps fighting to the bitter end” in the real world. "

-- Ani Choying Drolma: Singing For Freedom

ARTSTIC

APPROACH

Ani Bond: Choying Drolma unfolds through three intertwined threads. The main thread portrays Ani Choying’s life journey. The second thread constitutes the ensemble stories of four nuns at different ages at Arya Tara School that reflect both the heroine’s past and her achievements. The hidden thread consists of Ani Choying’s music. These Buddhist chants, and their underlying concepts, build the narrative arc connecting the life stories of both Ani Choying and the nuns.

The film presents the story of Ani Choying Drolma in a style as if a scroll of Thangka (a traditional Tibetan painting) unfolds over time. Applying the color principles and composition rules of Thangka to visual elements, the film constructs an internal rhythm across frames and among characters. By alternating between mise-en- scene and montage, the film further creates the tension in different dimensions to resemble the environment in which the fight for gender equality embeds: individual vs. society; village vs. city; tradition vs. modernity, and external vs. internal. In addition, immersed in the powerful voice from the Himalayas, the film evokes empathy, instead of sympathy. It tells a story that is embedded in time and space, but also transcends any given time and space.

Dolma Tsering

aged 8

Little Dolma is the newest nun at the Arya Tara School. The school is a refuge for this girl who was sent away from home by her mother after her father tried to burn them both alive. She is learning how to combat her fear and start a new life in school. A year later, little Dolma has become more cheerful and she is making friends at Aya Tara School.

MISSION

There is no better time than the present to tell a story of the fight for gender equality.

Many have claimed the dawn of a new era of feminism has begun. Yet, the story of these girls who must take refuge in nunneries to escape their fates as domestic servants in a patriarchal society remains unheard. According to a survey by the United Nations, in the past three decades, even though Nepal has made significant progress in economic growth. more than half of Nepali women are still illiterate; more than 20% of women report that they have been sexually assaulted; and 29% report that their first experience of sexual intercourse was not consensual. Unfortunately, the global trend isn’t optimistic either. The World Health Organization projects that around the globe, one in three women will experience sexual or domestic violence at some point in their lives. Two-thirds of the world’s illiterate population is female. Women and girls account for 80 percent of the victims of human trafficking. And less than 30 percent of characters in movies are female.

Now is the time.

Now is the time to tell this story through film. Besides raising awareness on gender inequality, the film suggests two indispensable processes when fighting for the cause. One incorporates public engagement in striving for women’s rights. The other invites an inward journey to transform the self. Not until these two processes align will the joy of freedom become manifest. Otherwise, individuals remain victims of an unjust social system, or slaves to their own emotions, or both.

The profits generated by this documentary will be donated to Ani Choying’s Foundation to help the nuns at Arya Tara School and patients at the nephrology hospital Ani Choying has founded.