Venice Production Bridge Bhutan Project ‘I, The Song’ Sets December Start Date (EXCLUSIVE)
variety.comNaman Ramachandran Bhutanese filmmaker Dechen Roder’s new film, “I, The Song,” which is selected at the Venice Production Bridge’s gap financing market, will commence principal photography in December.
Roder’s debut feature “Honeygiver Among the Dogs” premiered at Busan in 2016, and went on to have a successful festival run including at Berlin, Locarno, Hong Kong, Taipei and Fribourg, where it won three major awards. “I, The Song” was born when two friends of Roder experienced the horror of being in non-consensual pornographic videos and photos in Bhutan, where in both cases it was recorded and shared without their knowledge or consent.
Roder also wanted to make a film to explore the story where a remote community in Bhutan claimed that the capital city Thimphu had stolen a sacred song of theirs, performing it on TV, over the radio, on stage, and for entertainment.
The community felt that this song was sung out of context, and thus desecrated and would upset their female guardian deity. “The story and themes of the film were inspired by real-life events around me.
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