About the film
Filmed in the high grasslands of eastern Tibet, Summer Pasture is an intimate glimpse into the life of a young nomad couple and their infant daughter.
Summer Pasture
— BY Lynn True, Nelson Walker, Tsering Perlo
status
Completed
type
Nonfiction
year
2010
director
Lynn True, Nelson Walker, Tsering Perlo
producers
Lynn True, Nelson Walker
Synopsis
Filmed in the high grasslands of eastern Tibet, Summer Pasture is an intimate glimpse into the life of a young nomad couple and their infant daughter.
Locho and his wife Yama live in Dzachukha, nicknamed Wu-Zui (5-Most) for being the highest, coldest, poorest, largest, and most remote county in China’s Sichuan Province. They depend on their herd of yaks for survival, much as their ancestors have for generations. But in recent years, Dzachukha has undergone rapid development, and Locho and Yama are finding their traditional way of life increasingly difficult to maintain.
Summer Pasture is an exploration of Locho and Yama’s personalities, relationship, and the changes taking place around them. Over the course of the film we witness their experiences with illness, infidelity, and the dissolution of their community. In the face of mounting challenges, Locho and Yama ultimately reveal the personal sacrifice they will make to ensure their daughter’s future.
Summer Pasture aired on PBS’s Independent Lens series in 2012 and earned a Peabody Award.
Summer Pasture is a Cinereach grantee.
