One and Four

Directed by Jigme Trinley
2021
88 minutes

Post-screening discussant: La Frances Hui, Curator, Department of Film, MoMA

Debut feature film by Jigme Trinley. In this thriller set in a remote mountain area in the late 1990s, a forest ranger working on a serious poaching incident, is visited by four strangers on a snowy night. Official selection at Fantasia International Film Festival, New York Asian Film Festival, FIRST International Film Festival, and the Tokyo Film Festival.

Filmmaker bio: Jigme Trinley is an up-and-coming Tibetan director whose debut feature film has been screened at international film festivals to raving reviews. A graduate of the Beijing Film Academy (2020) with a BA in Film Directing, and the son of the late Pema Tseden, Jigme Trinley’s films use Tibetan casts and production crews to tell uniquely Tibetan stories. His debut feature film, One and Four, based on a novel by Jamyang Tsering, screened at the Tokyo International Film Festival, the New York Asian Film Festival, and the FIRST International Film Festival, among others. As a student, Jigme Trinley created six short films, and worked on films by other Tibetan directors, including his father. He directed a documentary on Tibetan filmmakers entitled Making Movies on the Plateau (2017). His current project is under production.

This screening is a part of:

LEGACIES: Pema Tseden & New Tibetan Cinema Series Finale—Films by the Next Generation

This weekend program is the finale of a year-long tribute series entitled, “LEGACIES: Pema Tseden & New Tibetan Cinema,” co-sponsored by Columbia University’s Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Weatherhead East Asian Institute, C.V. Starr East Asian Library, Modern Tibetan Studies Program, and Department of Film and Media Studies. Pema Tseden (1969-2023) was a pioneer of the Tibetan New Wave cinema and inspired a new generation of Tibetan filmmakers.