A review of the Himalayan films brought together by Film Himalaya 1994 indicates that there are many to applaud and enough to criticise.
In 18 February, Sri Mustangi Rajasaheb Jigme Parbal Bista flagged off Film Himalaya 1994, a three-day-festival of documentaries and films at a refreshingly brief and dignified inauguration, followed by the screening of the film Baraka.
This was Baraka´s Asia premiere — and there were other firsts as well. This was decidedly the first festival of films on the Himalaya and its peoples; probably the first in the region to focus almost exclusively on documentaries; and certainly, the first that showed more than token respect for the inhabitants of the Himalayan region.
The fare was as large as it was varied. Chosen by a Kathmandu-based selection panel of locals and expatriates, the films and documentaries ranged over subjects as diverse as development, anthropology, ethnography, religion, ecology and environment, tourism, wildlife, spiritualism, culture, architecture, medicine and history. There were fikns-on-the-making-of-films, others that were tainted with Hollywood hype, and others that were plain down home entertainment.