KL Desk
Srinagar
Jungwa (The Broken Balance), a documentary film by a Ladakhi film maker has got the Jury Award on the 29th Mountain International Film Festival held in Autrance, France.
Jungwa is documentary about the links between the environment, global warming and the Ladakhi way of Life made by Stanzin Dorjai Gya from Ladakh. Dorjai hails from a remote village called Gya 70Kms east of Leh.
He is one of the founders of the Himalayan Film House Leh which is one of the best Film Making Studio in Leh producing music audios, videos, feature films and documentaries on regional, national and international levels.
Stanzin has produced a number of documentaries as well as feature films and has worked with several national and international film makers. Living with Change a documentary on the affects of global warming in Ladakh that Stanzin made for WWF India has earned worldwide appreciations, and this film is being screened in different countries.
“Like other kids of Gya village, Stanzin’s was a nomadic family. His parents own herds of Yaks and Sheeps and Stanzin had a nomadic childhood, grazing Yaks and sheeps with schooling simultaneously”, said Sonum Lotus, meteorologist.
“While pursuing his 12th class in Govt. Hr. Sec. School, Leh in 1995, Stanzin was selected as a campus student at Students Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL) hostel. It is here that ignited Stanzin’s urge to excellence in life”, he added.
While recalling his days at SEMCOL, Stanzin said, “At SECMOL, I was supported academically and slowly also gained the confidence to interact with the outside world – I learnt to speak English and got oriented to social and development issues of the region. This helped me complete my graduation”.
Later Stanzin had an advanced training at SECMOL in cinematography, direction, editing and script writing under film maker Lars Lindstrom of Sweden. “This training allowed me to become a cameraman, a director cameraman and editor, a new business in Ladakh”, Stanzin acknowledges.
