Countdown to New Year's Eve

We have launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise funds for the next round of shooting in 2013! We have until New Year's Eve to raise $9999!

Please watch the trailer to see excerpts of footage from our previous shoots to get a real sense of the work we are doing!

Click here or on the widget to the right.

Thanks for your support.

Miranda & Sophie

Back to work in Kathmandu

Now Miranda is back in Nepal and working with our translator in Kathmandu. The story is taking shape and we are in the process of planning our next shoot in Jumla early in 2013.

In addition, we are in the final preparations of our next fundraising push. Following the success of our screening event in Los Angeles, we feel excited and confident that support for this project continues to grow. When we launch, we are asking all our friends and supporters to help by spreading the word to their networks and anyone they feel would be interested in our film.

This project has come so far from the initial vision. This film is being made by the investment of faith and pennies from our friends and supporters around the world. We are privileged to be on this journey, but the film is being made possible by everyone who believes this story is worth telling.

Thank you.

Screening in Los Angeles

The project has taken a whole new lease of life following the wonderful screening event we held in September at the Dick Clark Screening Room in Santa Monica, California. It was the perfect space to hold the event, thanks to my dear friend, the deeply entertaining David Garonzik, who manages the space. I would certainly recommend it to anyone in Los Angeles wanting to have a screening. And they have a popcorn machine too!

The evening was an opportunity for us to share our progress with our supporters and friends. This is a long journey and it was great to be able to show people what we have been doing so far, giving them an idea of what the project is really about and a small taste of what Jumla is like.

We were extremely grateful to the generosity of some businesses in the Nepali community in California for giving us a taste of Nepal - in food, beer and decor. Tara's Himalayan Cuisine, authentic Nepali food in Culver City, provided delicious snacks that mostly disappeared in the first hour (I hope people will follow up and frequent her place as a result). We managed to get beer from Nepal donated from the only distributor in the country, Nepali Brew Supply, such a classic example of Nepali generosity - they didn't even know me but once I had told them about our project they were more than happy to support. We also had the privilege of showcasing some extremely nice wine from our friends at Fotinos Brothers Winery.  And finally, Reena from the Kathmandu Boutique in Santa Monica came and decorated the space with wares from her shop, giving us a great atmosphere.

For the night we had cut a short progress trailer showcasing some of the footage we've shot and giving a little explanation and back-story about the project and some of the girls featured in the film.

Over the course of the night, people came, enjoyed some food and drinks and then settled in to the comfy armchairs of the screening room to view our piece. I have to say, it went even better than I could have hoped. We had a great turnout and even more rewarding was the response of all who attended. It really made us appreciate that the work we are doing is not only of interest to people but actually had an impact on them. People were genuinely moved and everyone wanted to see more. Which is exactly what we wanted to hear!

Thanks to the wonderful Jenny Lens who came and took pictures - which I will post soon.

Process... Progress

After the shoot in March, I spent another month living in Jumla, reviewing the footage, translating with Soraj and generally soaking up life there by living there and forming a daily routine. I didn't want to leave when my month was over but I had to get back to Kathmandu for my final weeks in Nepal.

Back in Kathmandu, I continued to review the footage and work with Soraj, Nisha and my translators. It is a slow process, reviewing a film in a foreign language, logging and transcribing it all. It gives me a chance to really absorb the footage and having a written record of what was said has proved invaluable already. The other interesting thing has been the reaction of the girls who have worked with me translating.

Soraj and Nisha speak enough English to work with us. Soraj's English is good enough to review footage so I can do rough transcriptions. But it is not quite strong enough for subtitling. The girls that I have been working with are students from Kathmandu who have very strong English.  The transcription process has been fascinating for them and I have delighted in seeing their reaction to, not only the beauty of the place, but also the difference in lifestyle. For these city girls, Jumli living is almost as much of a contrast as it is coming from the west.


I left Nepal in May and am now in California, working with Sophie on the footage in preparation for a screening event we are holding in September before my return to Nepal in October.

We have a lot of footage and the film is shaping up nicely, so we thought it would be nice to share some of our progress with our supporters. We are holding an event in a screening room in Los Angeles, screening a short that we are putting together. It will be the first time the footage is shown on a big screen, so we are very excited!

Photographs by Soraj Shahi

Production pictures taken by our wonderful production manager, Soraj Shahi. Aside from being our indispensable fixer, Soraj takes beautiful photos so I thought I would share some of them. These were all taken during this second shooting period in March.

Day 5: Back in the Bazaar

I am writing from Jumla Bazaar which is the only ‘town’ here in Jumla and the only place with internet. We are here for two nights to recharge (batteries, computers, phones, toothbrushes) and download everything and have an ‘office day’. Tomorrow we return to Urthu-Chautara where we will spend the bulk of our time on this shoot as that is where we have the most connections and where my Jumli family is.

I keep losing track of how many days we’ve been here. In some ways it feels like we never left. We arrived five days ago. Our ‘direct’ flight - stopping in Nepalganj to refuel as I presume it was too cloudy to stop in Pokhara - was only three hours late, which is pretty good by Nepali standards. At least we arrived on the right day. It was somewhat of a bumpy ride and it seemed that some of the passengers may not have been that accustomed to turbulence so a lot of praying and vomiting was going on. The woman with the baby next to Sophie just went to sleep on her so poor Soph didn’t have the most comfy journey either.

the pilot fumbling, trying to open a packet of biscuits en route

The plan was to get the jeep straight to Litakot in Tatopani (I’ll be posting a map of Jumla soon) and as it was getting towards dusk we didn’t dilly-dally too long over our tea and biscuits, but we had wanted to at least spend a few minutes with our friends who had come to greet us. We were making good time until we got stuck behind a truck with a flat tire blocking the road. Ke garné? (means ‘what to do?’ in Nepali). By the time it occurred to someone that the tractor stuck behind the truck could push the disabled vehicle out of the way, there had been at least half an hour of animated discussion by the assembled crowd. It was dark by the time we reached Litakot but we were still greeted with green garlands made of young barley and tikas and a big enough crowd to help us haul our multitude of bags and cases to our rooms down the path.

Litakot is nestled on a hillside looking down a wide valley towards the Patarasi mountain range. It really is incredibly beautiful and interesting to see how different it looks at this time of year. The fields that were patterned with dung piles when we left in November now have a sprinkling of green as the barley is beginning to grow. In a few months it will be a sea of shimmering gold.

We spent four days shooting in three villages going back to see the women we met last time, seeing their homes, shops or tea houses and meeting their families. We are definitely getting deeper into the project now as people know us so they are more comfortable in front of the camera and feel more confident to talk about more intimate things – at which point we get Soraj to discreetly leave us ‘girls’ alone.

Litakot is a village in Tatopani VDC (village development committee - which is essentially a borough) within the district of Jumla. In some ways it feels so different than Urth-Chautara because of the landscape, but it is still quintessentially Jumla.

The production team - myself, Sophie, Soraj and Nisha is like a well-oiled machine now. We all get along wonderfully and truly enjoy our time together. And between Soraj and Nisha, all we could possibly need taken care of is usually done before we can even finish our sentences.

Sophie, Nisha & Soraj - the best production team I could ever have

I am so grateful to all of them for their hard work and spirited support – we all understand that we are making something not only visually beautiful, but also important for the development of the region. Aside from sharing the beauty of Jumla with the world we are also raising questions in the minds of men and women about their culture and society and we have seen that it has already had an impact in the way they view their lives. And we are less than half-way through. I can’t wait to get back to Chautara to see everyone and continue on our journey of exploration into this magical place. Of course, I am completely biased but Jumla is a very special place and we have the footage to prove it!

Imminent Return to Jumla

Time slips by so easily. It has been three months since we finished the first shoot. Sophie returns to Nepal in less than a week and days later we will find ourselves back in Jumla shooting the second phase. Thankfully, there is now a direct flight (once a week) from Kathmandu to Jumla so it makes the journey there a lot easier, rather than going to Nepalganj overnight and then flying from there. I'm looking forward to being back in Jumla so soon, surrounded by its majestic natural beauty and seeing my dear friends there. The warmth and love we experienced from the community is part of what we are trying to share with the world. It truly is a special place.

The past months have seen me slowly trawling through the nearly 60 hours of footage we shot in November, getting parts translated and planning what and who we will be focusing on for the March shoot. If I am honest, it has been quite overwhelming at times as there is so much to work with and so many directions we could go in, but I know that is all part of the process. And the footage is beautiful. The people, the landscape, even the daily existence is compelling to view, so I take comfort in knowing that we are creating something really beautiful. The tricky part is deciding what to omit. And in a matter of weeks, I will have even more to add to the canvas!

I am considering staying on in Jumla after the shoot when Sophie leaves. Although the tulo camera will be gone, it will give me an opportunity to get deeper into the community and get back in touch with life there. As long as I can navigate how to work around available power, I can still edit and review the footage and focus on the story. The lack of readily available internet will probably only serve to remove distractions. What appeals to me the most about working from Jumla is being back at the source of where the initial inspiration for this whole project was born. Although there is still a long journey ahead in the creation of this film, when I look at the last year and a half, I realise, with pride, how far we have actually come.

Second Shoot Scheduled!

Sophie has booked her ticket back to Nepal in March so the wheels are in motion for our second shooting expedition in Jumla. That gives me two months to review the rest of the footage from our first trip and shape the intention of this upcoming one.

Very excited!