The special one-day event in San Rafael on June 15, 2015 featured three programs of screenings, talks and raffles, all to raise attention and funds for ongoing grassroots earthquake recovery aid in Nepal.
Ten works were screened, including the US premiere of the remastered Academy Award nominee Himalaya and the Bay Area premiere of Beyond the Edge (in 3D), along with shorter films including Light of the Valley, Mustang—Journey of Transformation, We Corner People and The Rinpoche Speaks, and recent digital pieces from Nepal. Special guests Wes Nisker, Jeff Greenwald, and Norbu Tenzing introduced the programs. Norbu Tenzing also handled the Q&A after the Beyond the Edge screening.
“100% of the proceeds goes to grassroots recovery aid in Nepal,” says Gaetano Kazuo Maida, executive director of the event’s organizing co-presenter Buddhist Film Foundation. “The beneficiaries were selected very carefully, with advice from our friends and colleagues on the ground in Nepal.”
The organizations are Drokpa, GMIN (Grassroots Movement in Nepal), and Karuna-Shechen, all chosen for their effective work, transparency and commitment to long term recovery and rebuilding efforts in underserved areas of Nepal. Several of the co-presenting organizations also are active in Nepal, including Seva Foundation, Sahayeta, and Light of Buddhadharma Foundation International.
Key event organizer Will Parrinello, an award-winning filmmaker, said, “I’ve traveled and worked in Nepal for the past twenty years and have spent a lot of time observing development and aid work there. I’ve seen up close how grass roots organizations succeed and fail. We identified organizations with deep Nepali community roots.”
The event was generously hosted by co-presenter Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael, California, part of California Film Institute.
Other co-presenters were Alive Mind Cinema, Berkeley FILM Foundation, Center for Asian American Media, Ethical Traveler, Guna Foundation, Himalayan Fair, Himalayan Film Festival, Kino Lorber, KPFA, Sundance Selects, Telluride MountainFilm, and Wilderness Travel.
“We are particularly grateful to the filmmakers and their distributors for providing their works at no charge for this benefit,” says Mr. Maida. He adds, “Film has the ability to engage people with more than words and pictures—with the emotional energy of stories, in this case of Nepal in all its diversity.”
Thank you to everyone who participated in the Benefit Nepal Film Festival fundraising event, and to those who made additional donations, for your generous and ongoing support. Please visit Benefit Nepal Film Festival for a full list of donors and in-kind and raffle contributors.
We are pleased to report that each of the three beneficiary organizations will receive $3,918. For ongoing reports of the recovery efforts in Nepal there is a new Nepal Recovery webpage.
While our fundraising campaign has now ended and we are no longer able to accept donations on behalf of the beneficiaries, we encourage you to please consider donating to Drokpa, GMIN (Grassroots Movement in Nepal), and Karuna-Shechen directly online or by mail.
Grassroots Movement In Nepal (GMIN)
379 Hart Street
Brooklyn, NY, 11206
Drokpa
95 Stowell Rd
Norwich, VT 05055-9652
Karuna-Shechen USA
237 W 35 St, Ste 1101
New York, NY 10001-1963
