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 The
Monk Who Would Be a Director
Neten Chokling on "Milarepa"
by Larry Jaffee
...
Continued from Previous Page
StudentFilmmakers: In the same way
Milarepa, the person, goes through a spiritual journey, did you
find the film production process a similarly exhausting yet satisfying
journey?
Neten Chokling: Definitely YES. Not having prior
[filmmaking] experience, not getting funds and waiting for funds
to come in, it was very frustrating sometimes. But at the same
time, one reads about the life of Milarepa and then one knows
that “my” problems are nothing compared to what he went through.
This encouraged and inspired me on many occasions. It still does.
In the end, we came out with this film, and it seems to be touching
people in different ways. This is very satisfying to know that
what you made is touching people in positive ways. We worked hard.
Like Milarepa, our hard work had good motivations to start from.
Anything that is based on a good motivation, it comes through
good.
StudentFilmmakers: How did you approach
such an endeavor?
Neten Chokling: Basically, it was the thought
that “once this is done, this will benefit many.” The film has
lots of beautiful messages, right for today’s confused and turmoiled
world. It talks about the importance of compassion, understanding,
the futility of revenge, impermanence. Once we are able to think
of these more in our daily lives, our actions and reactions will
also change in a positive way. This thought was basically how
I started this project.
StudentFilmmakers: While making a film
was new for you, there were some pretty experienced people on
your crew.
Neten Chokling: We had some of the most wonderful
people doing post production: Suzy Elmiger was the editor. She
had cut Robert Altman’s Short Cuts and Stanley Tucci’s Big Night.
Bob Hien, the sound editor, worked on Woody Allen’s Deconstructing
Harry, Alice, Bullets Over Broadway, and Mighty Aphrodite; as
well as Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums; Secret Window; Jim
Jarmusch’s Ghost Dog; Before Night Falls; John Sayles’ Eight Men
Out. Joel Diamond, the composer, was best known for his work on
Henry Bean’s The Believer. John P. Nugent and his team at Sandbox
was the visual effects supervisor on The Lord of the Rings trilogy,
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, and The Matrix, among others.
StudentFilmmakers: How did you attract
such talents with major Hollywood credits?
Neten Chokling: Basically they were people who
had some interest in Tibet, the Buddha Dharma and the Himalayas!
I personally think that they had faith in this film and the messages
that it was portraying. They have been very kind to us, to the
project.
StudentFilmmakers: How did you approach
getting Western interest/financial backing in the film?
Neten Chokling: We did try fundraising many times,
and we were unsuccessful most of the time. Nobody wanted to invest
in an independent film and on a first-time director without any
background or experience. We approached prominent people who were
interested in Buddhism and who were capable of investing. But
when it came to money, everybody just wanted to be attached to
it!
StudentFilmmakers: Where did the $1.5
million budget come from?
Neten Chokling: A close family member knew about
the project. Every year in France, there is a gathering of Buddhist
practitioners under Sogyal Rinpoche, the author of the Tibetan
book of living and dying. This close family member met his friend
there and told him about the project. The friend of his invested
$100,000. With this money, we started the project. We rented our
cameras and shipped them to India, got the crew ready and started
filming.
We started filming and then again ran out of money. I got some
loans from my friends and also put in whatever I had at that time—around
$50,000. With this money, we just managed to get by the filming.
By the end of the filming, I owed money to the western crews.
The best part was that I had “monk power.” I had 88 monks from
my monastery doing part-time crew work and cast work, all on a
volunteer basis. The western crews would joke, “Hollywood has
money power” but “you have monk power!”
All the assistants to the camera man and sound man were monks.
The boom swinger was a monk!
In order to pay the western crews, this friend of the family member
invested another $100,000.
After filming, we stopped for a couple of months. We had no money
to do post production. During this time, a lady from the Buddhist
Broadcasting Foundation, based in Holland, came to the scene.
She invested some money.
Another Buddhist organization in Colorado invested some money.
Some money was invested by some Buddhists in Taiwan. The rest
of the money was put in by the same guy, who initially invested
in France.
StudentFilmmakers: How frustrating is
it to hold off on Part II until 2009? Why is it taking so long?
A lack of financing?
Neten Chokling: Because it had been difficult
to finish this one (Milarepa), I wasn’t sure that I wanted to
make the second part. I thought people could read the biography
in order to figure out the rest of the story. But now, it seems
that many people want to see the second half of the story. That
is why I would like to finish the second part. One of the biggest
reasons to start in 2009 is financial. It is not frustrating to
hold off until 2009, but I would like to finish as soon as possible.
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