Film-making in Bhutan: The view from Shangri-La

Bhutan until the last decade drastically restricted its contact with the outside world, and recent media interest has focussed only on Bhutan's late reception of global satellite TV and the Internet. To date there has been no scholarly account of its indigenous DV film industry; one that has produced nearly a hundred featurelength films, none of which have yet been screened outside Bhutan. The author of this report has had unique access to the country and, as a screenwriter and director herself, has by working in collaboration with Bhutanese colleagues gained added insights into the creative and practical dilemmas faced by film-makers there. She also highlights areas of concern to film theorists with regard to questions of spectatorship, as well as narrative strategies around the notion of the dream.