Tibetannet

Liang Junjian, co-director of the movie Himalaya: Ladder to Paradise talks to the audience at a screening of the movie in Washington on Wednesday. PHOTOS BY DONG LESHUO / CHINA DAILY

People sweltering through the heat of a Washington D C summer got the chance to cool off a bit by viewing some breathtaking Himalayan mountain scenery.

The documentary Himalaya: Ladder to Paradise was screened for the public in Washington's Chinatown on Wednesday.

Directed by Chinese filmmakers Xiao Han and Liang Junjian, the 89-minute film explores the lives of young Tibetans living on Mount Qomolangma (also known as Mount Everest), the highest peak on earth.

"We want to show the audience something different in the cinema," said Liang Junjian, who is also an assistant professor at School of Journalism and Communication at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

The movie tells the story of a group of young Sherpas in Tibet who were trained to be climbing guides at a local school and successfully lead climbers up the legendary mountain.

"We want to reflect the transitions in Tibet from a special perspective," Liang said, "to show the transitions through their relationship with their families, their religions and what climbing means to them."

The documentary is the product of four years of collaborative work by a multicultural team, which included Han people, Tibetans and Western filmmakers.

The idea of making the movie dates back to 2010. It took two years for the team to do the preparation. Then they took a year to shoot 540 hours of film and another year to edit, according to Liang.

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Audiences watching the movie, Himalaya: Ladder to Paradise , in Washington on Wednesday.

A major highlight of the movie are the breathtaking shots of the Himalayas.

Some of the most beautiful scenes are shot in 4K resolution, which was the most advanced at the time of filming, said Liang.

The movie also uses special photographic technology at 23,000 feet on Qomolangma, a rarity in the world of cinema.

It is also the first film to detail the process of climbing the highest mountain in the world from the north side.

"I like this movie a lot," said ShiYu Wang, who was in the audience. "I think it was extremely hard for the filmmakers to actually produce this film because I'm also a filmmaker and I know when we went to shoot a documentary in Alaska, where it is not so super high or super cold as Tibet, we needed to spend a month in training."

"They've done excellent work. I'm so proud of Chinese filmmakers like them," she added.

The film cost about $2 million to make and was released nationwide in China in October of 2015, earning more than $1.8 million at the Chinese box office.

"Though it cannot be compared to how much commercial movies make, we're happy it covered most of our expenses in distribution," Liang said.

Currently the team is working on a five-episode television documentary, which is likely to be shown on major television channels in China by the end of the year.

The screening was a part of a special spotlight-screening event for the 3rd DC Chinese Film Festival (DCCFF), which kicks off in September.

Since 2011, the DCCFF has been dedicated to discovering and showcasing films created by and about Chinese-speaking communities around the world. Over the past six years, DCCFF has shown hundreds of independent films in the DC area.

"I think the festival is showcasing a lot of (Chinese) filmmakers most people in America would otherwise never hear of," said Thomas Beddow, who thinks independent film in China is thriving.

"It's good that this festival is bringing those films to the US because a lot of films released at the major theaters are either Hong Kong action movies or the blockbusters like The Monkey King, so it's interesting to see some of the smaller films from younger filmmakers in China," Beddow said.

"We want to bring a diversity of films to America by showing contemporary China through filmmakers' eyes, that is why we choose this documentary," said Meng Li, deputy director of DCCFF. "This is a story about young Tibetans and the tensions they face between the pastoral and urban life, traditional and modern lifestyles, faith and the allure of money. It's an intimate story of young Tibetans coming of age in a rapidly changing world."