Dear all,

Headwind is selling sponsorspace on the website, printed products, the film credits and most important on the Headwind Film-On-A-Card. The backside of the creditcard size 4 GB USB pendrive is available for advertising and promotion. Also half a Gigabyte is available for sponsor messages on our card.

Film-On-A-Card (TM) is a White Stork Films / Empowerment Foundation joined product. The Headwind production team produces this amazing little USB pendrive with the following content:

• Headwind, the forgotten exiles from Bhtuan documentary
• Unforgotten the eBook version of the photobook with amazing photos made while shooting the film in Nepal and India.
• Headwind, Laxmi’s Story the eBook version of the english language novel about a young refugee woman resettling to the Netherlands.
• Headwind Soundtrack, the soundtrack music of the film. With uniwue recordings of Nepali – Western fusion music.
• Headwind Library, a library of reports and other background information concerning the Bhutanese diaspora.
• slideshows of the Headwind photo exhibitions 2011 and 2012.

In the years 1990 to 1992 some 120.000 people living in the south and east of Bhutan were driven out of their homeland into exile. Twenty years later they still live in either refugee camps in the southeast of Nepal or in diaspora all over the world in western civilization. And the number of resettlers is growing whereas the number of people left behind living in limbo in and outside the UNHCR managed refugee camps decrease.

Headwind, the forgotten exiles from Bhutan is a human interest / human rights essay documentary that sheds light on history, current situation, resettlement and integration challenges of the exiled people from Bhutan. The supposed to be country of Gross National Happiness.

The trailer

The drama

Imagine being in 40 years old. Imagine that in the past you were driven into exile and ended up without any hope for a decent future in a refugee camp. Living under bamboo roofs and simple soil. Next to the river where the dead are being cremated. Imagine loosing friends and family who have been resettled from your daily existence. Imagine that one day you might very well resettle to a far away country with a culture that is completely different from your own. Imagine you have children you want to have a better life and imagine that in reality you long to return to the country you were born.

Such a life is the life of the Bhutanese filmed in this documentary.

Headwind, the forgotten exiles of Bhutan tells a tale. A tale of perseverance and a tale of grabbing a straw for a better life but also a tale of loss of friendships and culture, of broken families and long distance relationships. This documentary is a visual document of what happens when the international community decides to displace an exiled people in stead of pressuring the government of the country where they came from to repatriate. It shows how people struggle to retain culture and religion and how against all odds they find a way to cope. Headwind, the forgotten exiles from Bhutan gives a voice to the unheard and a face to the unseen.

The creation

Headwind, the forgotten exiles of Bhutan has been filmed on location in Nepal, India and the Netherlands in 2011 and 2012 without support from any government or the UNHCR, funded by the director and a few donors. The film has been created without any influence from whatever organization, political party or advocacy group. All footage of the documentary is real, no reenactment is used and all added footage and stills from other sources have been thoroughly checked. It is not a political film, it doesn’t pass judgement because that is not necessary. Headwind, the forgotten exiles of Bhutan is not a film with graphic content or overly dramatized scenes, it merely shows the reality from the perspective of an independent observer and film maker.

A document of culture

As the exile of the Bhutanese is basically a cultural cleansing performed by a government and monarch with no regard for human rights, this film captures and shows the culture of the exiles. It does that by showing daily life in the refugee camps and after resettlement but also by integrating music and poetry from the Bhutanese and Nepali communities.

The reasons for making this film

Headwind, the forgotten exiles of Bhutan is made by the director/producer Alice Verheij together with co-director/executive producer Eveline van de Putte. The Nepal production was co-produced by Vidhyapati Mishra, an acclaimed journalist from the Bhutanese refugee community in the Nepal. The film is an initiative from the director and the idea came from a number of conversations with Bhutanese exiles in the Netherlands in combination with the understanding that western society seems oblivious of the percentagewise largest cultural and ethnic cleansing in the last 50 years: the exile of almost 20% of Bhutan’s population from that Himalayan kingdom. The objective of Headwind, the forgotten exiles of Bhutan is to shed some light on what happened and why it happened, how these exiles were forgotten and how they are now being thrown into diaspora by the international community in an attempt to erase the refugee situation and cover up history. The film also shows how resettlement can be a good thing for young people but is a drama for the elderly who in the end are both lost in history and end up in mental homelessness.

The director,
Alice Verheij
director@headwindfilm.com

The executive producer,
Eveline van de Putte
producer@headwindfilm.com

www.headwindfilm.com
www.empowermentfoundation.nl

The Headwind production team has decided to end the current crowdfunding effort. Obviously setting up our own crowdfunding while we are completely consumed by the production of the documentary did not work. The reason being that we simply do not have enough time available to do our own fundraising and promotion to the required level to bring in the funds needed for the film.
And if we would have been able to spend enough time in that it would certainly mean that we would not be able to spend enough time in creating the work itself.

So this is the end of the Headwind crowdfunding effort.

Or is it not?

Within a few days we will restart crowdfunding but on a different basis. Because we will be working together with one of the most challenging platforms for independent film makers that is available in the Netherlands. Just watch this space, come back in few days and let yourself be surprised. As of today the crowdfunding page has been taken offline and supproting Headwind is no longer possible by buying production shares. Later this week you’ll find a completely different model for participating in the Headwinf documentary project in cooperation with a large media organization.

Alice Verheij
director of Headwind.

The Headwind production team is pleased to announce the release of the first official Headwind trailer. We hope you will all like it and spread the news. If you want to share on any media, please do so!

Alice Verheij, director
Eveline van de Putte, executive producer

With only two or three days shooting left in the Netherlands, the Headwind production team has been able to wrap up the Nepal shootings for the documentary Headwind. As a result of that the production stage has started as of last week, only a few days after the return from the third Nepal trip which also brought the opportunity to film Bhutan similar landscapes in Sikkim, the Indian state between Nepal and Bhutan.

The total hours of video shot by the Headwind production team in 2011 and January 2012 is 48 hours. This includes footage from landscapes, refugee camps, interviews, UNHCR press conferences, European Parliament sessions, Dutch interviews, resettling refugees and much more. The Statistics so far:

• Scenes – 2.082
• Minutes – 3.087
• Audio (additional recordings) – 42
• Audio (additional recordings) Minutes – 116
• Music (recordings) – 3 songs
• Music (acquired recordings) – 1 song
• Music (additional recordings) – 46 additional songs
• Poems (recordings) – 3
• Stills (stills and photos) – 18.196

From this Headwind will composed including the addional Dutch footage that is still being shot and will be another 120 minutes.
But next to the documentary there of course the photo exhibitions, the novel and a photobook that is being prepared for print.

Alice
director, producer
Eveline
co-director, executive producer

As a surprise Eveline van de Putte, co-producer and narrator of Headwind, suggested me to travel to Nepal and India this December. For additional filming. It’s almost a year after our first visit to the Jhapa District and see the camps for the first time. A lot has happened since and so we hope to be able to combine an extra winter visit to the Beldangi camps near Damak.

While we’re at it we will also concentrate on filming extra footage of the nature, especially the mountain regions as this is supposed the be the best time of the year to do that. If all goes according to plan we will travel to India and more specific to Sikkim and West-Bengal. This time for spending the last days of the year including Christmas in a completely different environment than what we’re used to.

It will be great to see out friends again and we really look forward to that.

Alice
director, producer

October and November brought us some great shooting days. End October a large number of exiles arrived in two groups on Schiphol (Amsterdam) Airport. To start a new life. We were present when the second group arrived and were able to capture the moment.

In the weeks after this event we’ve filmed in Haarlem and Harderwijk at the new homes of some families who had just been resettled. A strange experience for all I gather.

After the winter holiday – which is not so much a holiday this time – filming will resume with only three shooting days to come in January. When that’s done we will dive into the studio for post production. With all the footage we have now that is promising, challenging and overly exciting to do. The aim is to have the film finished for first screening on April 13, 2012. That date is promising for two reasons. It’s the last day of the Nepal calendar year and it is the 50th birthday of me. Somehow I suppose it’s fitting to release Headwind on that day. Even if it’s going to be a pre-release first screening. It’s good to have a target date set.

Alice
director, producer of Headwind.

Headwind is replanned. Due to additional filming and extra time needed for post production (and a focus change) Headwind is replanned to release on April 13, 2012. Nepali New Year and the director’s 50th birthday because we like special dates.

Alice Verheij
director, producer, writer of Headwind

Just another update on progress.

Currently the filming of the Dutch part of Headwind is underway. But there’s a lot more to tell you all.

• There is an important change in the concept of Headwind. The film will focus specifically on the women in the family that we have been following in 2011. This means that we can dive some more into the role, position and social challenges of the women in the Bhutanese exiled community. By making this change Headwind will become even more challenging and more attractive for international broadcasting and other niche markets.
• We expect that this will also have some other team consequences in the near future in a positive way. At this stage the production of Headwind is handed over to the newly formed White Stork Films production company. White Stork Films is a platform for female film makers, photographers and writers based in The Hague, Netherlands. Hence the white stork as a trademark logo. White Storks, being migrant birds, travel the world in Europe, Asia and Africa and are the bringers of new life and hope.
• In December the production team will travel again to Nepal but also to Sikkim for additional filming. We hope to be able to return with amazing additional footage of the Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan mountain regions and exceptional footage of the life of Bhutanese exiles in Sikkim. These exiles in Sikkim are not regarded refugees by international standards but nonetheless they are exiles and part of the greater Bhutanese community that was exiled in the early nineties of the past century.
• The production team this time exists of Alice Verheij (director, writer, producer), Eveline van de Putte (Dutch production, narration and stills) and local Bhutanese.
• Because of the change in focus and the additional shooting the release date of Headwind has to shift to early April 2012.

Alice Verheij
directer, writer, producer

Starting September 1st and lasting until September 18th a photo exhibition is organized at Creatief Warenhuis HOOP (Creative Warehouse HOPE) located in The Hague’s city centre, at a prime spot. Alice Verheij, the writer and director of Headwind, will show 50 loving photos made by her, Eveline van de Putte of the Empowerment Foundation and the Nepalese artist Prakash Angdembe.

All photos were taken earlier this year while visiting the refugee-camps and region for the making of Headwind, the documentary.

On September 1, the ‘vernissage’ (opening night) starting 7 pm there will be music from the documentary, Bhutanese and Nepalese music, lectures by the film maker herself and room for asking questions about the Bhutanese Diaspora and the creation of the cross media project Headwind. At regular intervals parts of the soon to be published novel Headwind, Laxmi’s Story will be read by the author. All photos are for sale and profits will be used for editing the documentary. Expected number of visitors is over 1000 in just over two weeks.