MANCHESTER, NH – New Hampshire filmmaker Doria Bramante was recently honored as a Best Documentary finalist during the Moondance International Film Festival in Boulder, Co., for her film, “The Refugees of Shangri-La,” which follows the lives of Bhutanese refugees relocated to Manchester, NH, in pursuit of their own American Dream.
Bramante and her filmmaking partner and husband, Markus Weinfurter, of Durham, NH, documented conditions and explored the emotions and dreams of those torn from their homeland, living for decades among thousands of refugees in camps in Nepal before they were relocated to Manchester, NH.
As resettlement efforts began in 2008 to move 60,000 refugees from Nepal to the U.S. , Bramante and Weinfurter were able to reconnect with families who were among 2,000 Bhutanese refugees who were relocated to Manchester. The movie chronicles the hardships and triumphs of a people who, after 20 years in limbo, were able to find freedom and a new life in the U.S.
Bramante is the daughter of former New Hampshire Board of Education president Fred Bramante. This is her first feature film.
It has already had several showings in New Hampshire, including The Palace Theatre in Manchester, Red River Theatre in Concord, The Music Hall in Portsmouth, and Nashua Community College.
You can watch a trailer for the film below:
You can also learn more about the film project here, and request a return showing of the film here by following this link.