Screen Southasia: Q&A session for ‘The Next Guardian’

At Screen Southasia, we host monthly online screenings of compelling documentaries from the region, including Nepal, India, Kashmir, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Tibet, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Maldives and Sri Lanka. We present a diverse range of films, both classic and new, that showcase the unique cultures, histories and perspectives of Southasia. Screen Southasia is a partnership between Himal Southasian and Film Southasia. For updates on future screenings and Q&A sessions, sign up here: https://bit.ly/ScreenSouthasia For our latest Screen Southasia Q and A session, recorded on 5 June 2023, we speak with Arun Bhattarai, co-director of the documentary film The Next Guardian – a love-filled portrait of a family in Bhutan. https://www.himalmag.com/arun-bhattarai-the-next-guardian/ Film synopsis: In a Himalayan village, Gyembo and Tashi, a brother and sister, lead a normal life as teenagers. They love soccer and their phones. Their father oversees a Buddhist temple that has been in the family for generations. He hopes his son, Gyembo, will one day take over his duties and leave his modern English-language school in favor of a monk school. In this thoughtful and tender portrait of a Bhutanese family, the generation gap is as large as their love for one another. Celibacy doesn’t offer an enticing future to an adolescent boy, which Gyembo’s father understands. Nonetheless, he still tries to convince his son that being a monk offers many advantages. Meanwhile, Tashi feels more like a boy than a girl, and dreams of a life as a pro soccer player. She wants to attend a soccer camp that would be the first step in being selected for the national team. Unfortunately, though happiness is high on the political agenda in Bhutan, not all wishes come true.