Kunsang
Wangmo turned 100 in 2015. If Tibetan Buddhist nun had not left Tibet shortly
after the CCP’s occupation, she probably would not have survived to 50.
However, reaching her centennial made her keenly aware of her mortality. She
wished to return home for her death and reincarnation, but the Beijing regime
strictly controls access to the captive Tibetan nation. Her granddaughter and
Swiss son-in-law document her preparation for her final journeys. One will only
be a matter of time, but they hope she can also make the arduous trek back to Lhasa
before that happens in Yangzom & Martin Brauen’s Mola: A Tibetan Tale of Love and Loss, which screens
during the 2025 SXSW Film Festival.
Most of
her family and the Tibetan community in Switzerland simply know her as “Mola,”
or grandmother. She has lived in the land of neutrality with her daughter,
artist Sonam Dola Brauen and her son-in-law Martin for forty-five years. First,
she and Sonam Dola fled through India, where her daughter eventually met
Brauen, who was doing field work in Mussoorie.
Clearly,
the mother-daughter relationship has its share of stresses and strains. That
happens to most people, even if those who need not adjust to life in exile.
However, her son-in-law always seems to maintain good terms with “Mola,” while
granddaughter, director-thesp Yangzom, never directly appears on-camera.
Regardless,
Mola appears quite spry and alert for her age and she largely maintains a
healthy spirit. According to her own testimony, her faith helps sustain her.
Still, it is hard to get around the significance of her approaching milestone.
Switzerland’s neutrality ought to make her visa application easier, but her history
obviously raises many red flags (so to speak).
1980s
video stores probably did more to spread horror stories than even the campfire.
Genre fans are also nostalgic by nature, so it makes sense the old school video
store is a staple of retro horror movies. After all, we all remember discovering
many of our favorites through VHS rentals. This store has seen better days, so
maybe the 1990s have already arrived, but the aesthetic is still very 80s in
Bianca Poletti’s short film Video Barn, which screens during the 2025
SXSW Film Festival.
Like
usual. Hannah is working late with her friend Jules at the Video Barn, but
tonight she will sneak off early to see her boyfriend before he leaves for
college. While left alone, a mysterious VHS tape seems to be calling her. She
presses play.
When we
next see Hannah, she is working the late shift with only her guilt for company.
Jules has been missing so long, the media clearly assumes the worst. Her only
customer sneaks behind the notorious old video store curtain (so you know what
he came to browse).
Throughout
Video Barn, Poletti displays a keen feel for the VHS era. Frankly, this
is one of the better VHS-themed horror films, of any length. It is not quite as
much fun as Beyond the Gates, but it is about on par with Scare Package and vastly superior to its ill-conceived sequel. (Yet, one of the best
VHS horror productions was not even a movie, it was the Shudder podcast, Video
Palace.)
