在中国坐牢的纪录片制作人当知项欠的故事

在中国坐牢的纪录片制作人当知项欠的故事

文/ 德庆边巴（Dechen Pemba）
译/ 台湾悬钩子

【注：当知项欠（Dhondup Wangchen），又译为“顿珠旺青”；纪录片《不再恐惧》（Leaving Fear Behind），又译为《无畏》。】

那场由僧人开始、接下来几个月里即将席卷整个图伯特（西藏）的历史性抗议，在拉萨发生的同一天，当知项欠人却在三千公里之外的陕西省西安市。那天也是他拍摄的纪录片到了最后的时刻。这个纪录片的计划，是他想在奥运会开始之前，给博巴（藏人）一个说出心声的机会。就如同中国所有的地方一样，西安也沉醉在奥运的狂热中，大型的红色标语横挂着占满城市的上空，漆着无法形容的明亮颜色的奥运福娃，正从店铺橱窗里向外面看。然而这些似乎都与图伯特没有一点关系，与博巴希冀情况改善的心情没有一点联系。

对世界上的许多人而言，那场在2008年3月10日开始的抗议，来得十分意外。国际媒体突然开始史无前例地大幅报导一场已经进行了五十年的奋斗。记者、非政府组织、各国政府、甚至流亡博巴，突然之间都被严酷地提醒了有一个冲突仍未解决，而在奥运之前，博巴仍冒着失去一切的危险，想让自己的声音被听到。然而，当知项欠并不需要因那几个月的抗议与军事镇压才知道他的民族正在受苦。那种苦是他自己亲身经历的，那种苦也是他努力想要透过纪录片与简单的证言来传达的。

我从北京旅行一千两百公里到西安去见当知项欠，了解他的拍片计划。这是我第一次，也是唯一一次见到他。抵达西安火车站的时候，我买了一份当地的中文报纸：我想要记得这一天。当天稍后，我们甚至拍了当知项欠拿着这份报纸的镜头以为纪录。我才见到他几分钟，我就强烈地感觉到他对于完成这件事情是很有决心与毅力的，他觉得描绘博巴在中国统治下所遭遇的不公与不义是很重要的一件事。如同一位受他所采访的人，非常传神地描述的：“我们这些生活在中华人民共和国的博巴，就好像晴天里的星星一样，没有人看得见我们。”倾听当知项欠描述他的拍摄计划，单单其规模就令人印象深刻：在2007年至2008年之交的寒冬中，遍访图伯特东部偏远的地区，并在最严酷的状况下，纪录超过一百位不分男女的平凡百姓的观点，积累的录像磁带超过了四十个小时。而这些，都是靠着一部便宜的摄像机，没有新闻或电影制作的专业训练，并常常恐惧着因为这种公民记者的活动会被逮捕的情况下完成的。

那天在西安，当知项欠虽然牙痛着，他还是告诉我，他与他的朋友，僧人久美嘉措，早在2006年就想到了拍摄这样一部纪录片。在开始拍摄的一年半前，当知项欠就计划着如何进行，甚至把他的双亲、妻子、四个孩子都送往印度的安全之地，这样在他回到图伯特境内拍摄这部片子时，他们不会有危险。他有一个表亲在瑞士，意味着一旦录像磁带安全地出了境，就可以在奥运会之前，及时地完成剪辑与准备的工作，并赶上国际的放映。

2008年8月6日，他的纪录片，已经剪辑成二十五分钟，并命名为《不再恐惧》，在北京放映给一小群外国记者。但当知项欠，还有久美嘉措，早在三月底就被秘密地关押起来了。就在影片拍摄完成之后，他们回到自己的家乡，却发现家乡处于混乱之中，每天都有博巴上街抗议，而大批的军警也开始布防。久美嘉措在2008年10月获释后，外界得知他俩在关押期间都经历了严格的讯问，还遭到包括电击在内的种种折磨。直至一个著名的北京人权律师，今年稍早接下他的案子，当知项欠在西宁的姐姐才得知她的弟弟在狱中，而这又是另外一个明目张胆违反中国法律的事例。

对当知项欠的审判，据说在今年九月已经秘密地进行了。根据“国际大赦”的情报，他的罪名是“颠覆国家政权、煽动分裂国家”，而他在狱中感染了乙型肝炎，未得到任何治疗。他的北京律师受到中国政府的强大压力，不得不停止为当知项欠辩护，现在他的案子已经被交给一位当地律师，公平审判的机率十分渺茫。

我与当知项欠相处的时间不到一天。当我们在火车站道别的时候，他叮咛我要好好照顾自己，并且给了我一个装着一些饮料与点心的小袋子，祝我一路顺风。几个月之前，在YouTube上，我看到当知项欠少年时代的照片所汇成的一部短片，他看起来是个无忧无虑的年轻人，渴望离开他那狭小的村庄，好追求他自己都不可能知道的伟大冒险。然而我所见到的那位当知项欠，年纪大得多，也更加深思熟虑，对别人体贴照顾。数个月的经常旅行，显然让他十分疲惫。他在我的心目中，一直彷佛是一位图伯特英雄、公民记者、人权斗士的化身，但上个月，我走在北印度达兰萨拉的街道上时，我的朋友停下脚步，跟一位每天大清早就出现在那里卖饼子的女人说话。原来卖饼子的女士，就是当知项欠的太太，拉姆措。与她谈话之后，我突然想到他们两地分隔的家庭，意识到当知项欠也是一位丈夫、父亲、儿子的事实，意识到他的家人所付出的牺牲。

自从2006年8月以来，《不再恐惧》已经在全世界超过三十个国家放映，译成五种语言，包括中文在内。全世界各地呼吁中国释放他的运动仍然持续着尚未停止。回想起来，我还是很难相信，带着一架小小摄影机，骑着一辆摩托车，背着蓝色背包，以及有可靠的朋友们的帮助，当知项欠就这样找到了一个可以真实表达自己的办法。

真相就是如此简单，你只要花二十五分钟看《不再恐惧》，你就会掌握到所有必要的背景知识，领悟到某种形式的起义，在图伯特肯定是无可避免的事情。然而说出自己的真心话，在一个像中国这样的国家里，一向就代表反抗，不经挣扎努力就无法幸存。

2009年12月10日

德庆边巴在2008年7月被离开北京之后，就一直是纪录片《不再恐惧》的发言人。她住在伦敦。

December 10, 2009 10:45 AM ET
The story of Dhondup Wangchen, filmmaker jailed in ChinaBy Dechen Pemba

On the same day that historic protests started by monks in Lhasa began and were to sweep all over Tibet in the subsequent months, Dhondup Wangchen was nearly 3,000 kilometers away in Xian, in China’s Shaanxi province. It was the last day of filming for his documentary film project that sought to give voice to Tibetans in the run-up to the Olympic Games. As was the case throughout China, Xian was caught up in an Olympic fervor. Big red banners were hung all over the city, the Olympic mascots peered from shop windows in unspeakably bright colors. None of this however, seemed to have the slightest connection to Tibet or the discontent of the Tibetan people.

For many around the world, the protests that began March 10, 2008, were a surprise. International media were suddenly giving unprecedented coverage to a struggle that had been going on for more than 50 years. Journalists, NGOs, governments and even exiled Tibetans were given a stark reminder that a conflict was unresolved and that, in the run-up to the Olympics, Tibetans were still risking everything to be heard. It hadn’t take months of protests and a military crackdown in Tibet, however, for Dhondup Wangchen to be aware of the suffering of his people. It was something he had lived, and it was this that he was seeking to convey through film and simple testimony.

I had travelled 1,200 kilometers from Beijing to Xian to meet Dhondup Wangchen and learn about his film project. It was to be the first and only time that I would meet him. On arrival at the train station, I bought a local Chinese paper; I wanted to remember this day. Later on in the day, we even filmed Dhondup Wangchen with this newspaper as a record. Within minutes of our meeting, I was struck by his determination and drive to accomplish something that he felt was important—to depict the injustice of life as a Tibetan under Chinese rule. As one of his interviewees so eloquently said, “We Tibetans living in the PRC are like stars on a sunny day, we can’t be seen.” Just hearing the sheer scale of Dhondup Wangchen’s project was impressive, traveling through remote areas of eastern Tibet in the Tibetan winter of 2007-08 and recording under the harshest imaginable conditions the views of more than 100 ordinary Tibetan men and women, amassing more than 40 hours of video footage. All this with just a cheap video camera, no professional training in journalism or film-making, and constantly in fear of being detained for his citizen journalism activities.

Despite painful toothache that day in Xian, Dhondup Wangchen told me that he, together with his friend Jigme Gyatso, a monk, had come up with the idea to make a documentary as early as 2006. The year and a half before beginning filming, Dhondup Wangchen planned how he would make the film, even taking his parents, wife, and four children to India to safety so they would not be at risk when he returned to Tibet to make the film. Having a cousin in Switzerland meant that once the footage was safely out of the country, the documentary could be edited and prepared for an international release in time for the Olympic Games.

On August 6 2008, his documentary film, now edited into 25 minutes and titled “Leaving Fear Behind”, was screened to a select group of foreign journalists in Beijing. But Dhondup Wangchen, along with Jigme Gyatso, had already been in secret detention since the end of March. On completion of filming, they had gone back to their respective hometowns only to find the places in turmoil with almost daily Tibetan protests occurring and a huge military deployment under way. On Jigme Gyatso’s release in October 2008, it was learned that they had both undergone severe interrogations and torture in detention that included electrocution. It wasn’t until a well-known Beijing human rights lawyer took up his case early this year that Dhondup Wangchen’s sister in Xining even learned of her brother’s incarceration, another outright violation of China’s own detention laws.

Dhondup Wangchen’s trial reportedly started behind closed doors in September this year. According to Amnesty International he is being charged for “subversion and incitement to separatism” and has contracted Hepatitis B in prison for which he has received no treatment. After his Beijing lawyer was forced by the Chinese government to stop representing Dhondup Wangchen, local lawyers were appointed, leaving little hope of a fair trial.

I spent less than a day meeting Dhondup Wangchen. When we parted back at the train station, he told me to take care of myself and gave me a little bag containing some drinks and snacks for my journey. A few months ago on YouTube, I saw a video clip of pictures of Dhondup Wangchen in his teens, a casual-looking young man eager to leave behind the constrictions of his village on a quest for adventure greater than he could have known. The Dhondup Wangchen that I had met was older and thoughtful. The many months of constant traveling had clearly been physically exhausting. I had always thought of him as a kind of Tibetan hero, a citizen journalist and human rights activist but last month I was walking down the street in Dharamsala, northern India, with a friend who stopped to talk to the woman who sells bread there early every morning. The bread-seller was Dhondup Wangchen’s wife, Lhamo Tso. After spending time talking with her I suddenly thought about their separated family and of Dhondup Wangchen as a husband, a father, and also a son—and their own personal sacrifices.

Since August 2008, “Leaving Fear Behind” has been screened in more than 30 countries worldwide and translated into five languages, including Chinese. The worldwide campaign for his release continues. Looking back, it’s hard to believe that Dhondup Wangchen, with just a small camera, a motorbike, his blue backpack and the help of trusted friends, found a way of expressing himself truthfully.

The simple truth is that just spending 25 minutes watching “Leaving Fear Behind” gives all the background necessary to see that some kind of uprising was surely inevitable in Tibet. But truthfulness in a state like China is always an act of defiance and can‘t survive without a struggle.

Dechen Pemba has been the spokesperson for “Leaving Fear Behind” since she left Beijing in July 2008. She is based in London.

http://cpj.org/blog/2009/12/the-story-of-dhondup-wangchen-a-filmmaker-jailed-i.php