Student Films 1
wednesday june 7 | 10.00 hrs

A Life with Slate
Alampu is a beautiful and exceedingly remote village in Nepal. The majority of the settlers there are Thami people, one of the indigenous groups of Nepal. More than 90 percent of them have been involved in the slate production at Alampu. This film includes technical details about slate production in the mountainside mine, and how the slate is worked prior to distribution. In the film we see the social relationships, co-operation between the miners, and the intimacy of the mining families. Strong women perform the tough and arduous work alongside the men. They have to carry heavy slate loads far to sell them. The film also describes the socio- cultural life of the village and its interaction with the environment. The activities of the men and women in the mine as well as in the village have an almost poetic dimension.

Dipesh Kharel (Nepal) | Nepal | 2006 | 59 min | English subtitles

camera: Dipesh Kharel
sound: Rajesh Timilsina
editor: Dipesh Kharel/ Asami Saito
producer: Visual Cultural Studies, University of Tromso

contact: Dipesh Kharel
t: +97 14462697
e: khareldipesh@yahoo.com

Dipesh Kharel is a Nepalese filmmaker /ethnographer. He has a Master in Environmental Management and Sustainable Development from Pokhara University in Nepal and has studied Visual Cultural Studies at the University of Tromso in Norway. His Master Ethnographic Fieldwork has resulted in the text: ‘Heavy loads toward a better life’ and the film: ‘Life with Slate’.