Wednesday, 11 December, 2:00 pm, Rastriya Sabha Griha / Marquee

In an interactive storytelling session about snow leopard conservation, three people will present their stories to young audiences. They will speak about what it is like working with snow leopards under harsh mountain conditions, the challenges and accomplishments made in the process, and the need to save these elusive animals and their habitat. Each individual will have a narrative of their own, but the stories will be interconnected and progress seamlessly with each character picking up from where the previous character leaves the story. Most of the act is pre- decided, but parts of it will be candid and based on the real, raw experiences of the individuals. The session will end with a song about snow leopards composed by one of the speakers.

Speakers: WWF Nepal Country Representative, Dr. Ghana S. Gurung; Research Officer, Samundra Subba; Senior Research Officer, Sheren Shrestha.

Thursday, 12 December, 1:30 pm, Rastriya Sabha Griha / Marquee

Girls Get Equal (GGE) is Plan International’s global campaign aimed at ensuring that girls and young women have power over their own lives and can shape the world around them. This social change campaign calls for EQUAL POWER – it supports girls to become leaders and take part in all decisions that affect their lives; it calls for EQUAL FREEDOM – to defend girls’ right to be safe online and wherever they are in public, to ensure they are able to speak up without fear of
harassment or violence; it calls for EQUAL REPRESENTATION – Plan International Nepal is working on issues of representation, and calling out discrimination and damaging gender stereotyping whether on screen, in print, or in advertising, to make room for truthful representation of girls’ and boys’ stories. Plan International Nepal has a 40-year history of advancing children’s rights and equality for girls. It works with children, young people, supporters, and partners who strive for a just world.

Panelists include Body and Data representative, Kabita Rai; filmmaker and educator, Abhimanyu Dixit; actor and mountaineer Rojita Buddhacharya; Loom Nepal Chairperson Jyotsana Maskey.

Moderated by Neha Hirachan.

Friday, 13 December, 12:00 noon, Nepal Tourism Board

In an interactive session artist Tsherin Sherpa, designer of the artwork for KIMFF 2019, and the vision behind Visit Nepal Year 2020 mascot the Yeti, will share his journey as an artist, and discuss how and why he moved away from traditional thangka painting to contemporary art.

Born in Kathmandu, Nepal in 1968, Tsherin Sherpa currently works and resides between California, USA and Nepal. From the age of 12, he studied traditional Tibetan thangka painting with his father, Master Urgen Dorje. In 1998, Tsherin migrated to California, where he taught traditional thangka painting at various Buddhist centres, until he began to explore his own style: reimagining tantric motifs, symbols, colours and gestures placed in resolutely contemporary compositions. He also borrows imagery from classical Tibetan Buddhist iconography to abstract, fragment, and reconstruct the traditional image to investigate and explore his identity and personal diasporic experience, as well as the dichotomy found where sacred and secular culture collide. By employing mass culture’s ubiquitous noise, Tsherin imports these representations into a heightened dialogue where deities, icons, and global affairs can renegotiate into a mirror- like transmutation. He has participated in numerous exhibitions in Asia, Europe and the United States.

Saturday, 14 December, 2:30 pm, Nepal Tourism Board

Camara Sikha is a global filmmaking initiative funded by the British Council and facilitated by UK filmmaking education group Into Film. The project utilises a new approach to working with children and filmmaking. This year, the project is running in Nepal, and 12 schools have been selected to participate. Three filmmaking mentors from the UK are running workshops at these schools, ably assisted by 14 Nepali mentors who come from a variety of creative backgrounds.
Each participating school will receive their own filmmaking kit and resource materials to continue their filmmaking legacy.

The panel will be discussing the value that filmmaking can have on a young person’s societal, educational, and developmental dimensions, and highlights the ease with which children can be introduced to both visual storytelling and 21st  century skills.

Sunday, 15 December, 11:30 am, Nepal Tourism Board

Michael Dillon, a pioneering adventure cinematographer, shares many of the lessons he has learnt during 50 years as a documentary producer and freelance cameraman, including how to stop things going wrong, what equipment and attitudes to take along with you to help get things right, and camera techniques.

Michael’s many award-winning films span the world’s most spectacular destinations from the Himalayas to the Andes, Antarctica and the Arctic, the Pacific and Africa. In 1984 Michael filmed Australia’s first ascent of Everest, unsupported, without bottled oxygen, and via White Limbo, an avalanche prone and unrepeated North Face route. A couple of years later, he conceived the idea and filmed Tim Macartney-Snape’s full ascent of Everest from sea level. The resulting film, Everest: Sea to Summit became the most internationally awarded adventure documentary ever made. Michael is a fellow of the Royal Geographic Society. Inspired by Hillary’s work among the Sherpas, he became a founding director of the Australian Himalayan Foundation.  He was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2004 for his services to the Australian film industry as a pioneer in adventure and mountain film cinematography, and to the community through support for international humanitarian work.

Facilitated by Jolyon Hoff – Director/ Producer, Light Sound Art Film

Michael’s film Ocean to Sky will have its Asian premiere on 14 December, 5:00 pm at the Rastriya Sabha Griha.