Production Team

PRODUCER/DIRECTOR: Norah Shapiro left a rewarding 12-year career as a public defender in 2002, and found herself drawn to documentary filmmaking as a vehicle for continued exploration of real life stories that illustrate some of the complexities, paradoxes, and complications of being human. In 2006, her short film "A Sacred Heart," profiling Minnesota poet Phebe Hanson, won the Minnesota History Center's Greatest Generation Film Festival's "Emerging Filmmaker" Award. She has been commissioned to make multiple short documentaries, and is currently nearing completion of post-production on her documentary "If You Dare" about a Minneapolis Theater Company that works with at-risk children. Norah has traveled to Dharamsala, India, home of the exiled Tibetan Government for production on Miss Tibet: Beauty in Exile several times since 2006. In July, 2008, she was awarded a Jerome Foundation Film/Video Grant to support the production of Miss Tibet: Beauty in Exile, and is thrilled to begin the editing phase of the project.

CO-PRODUCER: Lisa Blackstone believes everyone has a story to tell. Her passion is discovering those stories and then sharing them with the world. Blackstone is an Emmy-nominated director/producer/writer/editor and documentary maker based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Ms. Blackstone was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs. After graduating from Goucher College in Towson, Maryland, she heard the siren song of the Midwest calling her home. Rather than return to the City of Big Shoulders, she migrated slightly northward to the City of Lakes...Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was there that she found inspiration and support for telling people’s stories through television and documentaries. Her documentary "Polka Time" aired nationally on the acclaimed PBS/ITVS series Independent Lens. "Polka Time" also received the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Broad Humor Film Festival in Los Angeles. Her television work has been seen nationally on PBS and several cable networks including Animal Planet, HGTV, and MSNBC. Lisa's new short documentary about girls' competitive wrestling, "Grappling Girls", will be shown at the prestigious Lunafest in San Francisco this October.

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Ronny Novak has focused his work on Tibet through since 1991. His award-winning documentary 'Strange Spirit: One Country's Occupation' has been used in programming with the International Documentary Association and Stanford University's film program. He founded his own video production company, 10 Directions and traveled to India in 2004 at the request of the Dalai Lama to film stories of exiled Tibetans. He is a regular member of film crews for the Dalai Lama's teachings and has edited and produced these teachings for the public. Ronny does Dharamsala-based video production for the radio and web program the“Tibet Connection.” Most recently, Ronny has produced video on current Tibetan affairs for the BBC and for Nickelodeon.

CINEMATOGRAPHER: Michael Forstein is a director, cinematographer and editor from Minneapolis, MN. He Recently relocated to New York City, where he is interning for Loki Films and Arts Engine Inc. Since graduating from the University of Minnesota in 2006, he has directed multiple music videos and short films, and freelanced for numerous Twin Cities based documentary production companies including Flying Pieces Productions, Frozen Feet Films, and Free Country Media. In addition to his work on Miss Tibet: Beauty in Exile, he has also worked with Director/Producer Norah Shapiro on the documentary "If You Dare," nearing completion of post-production.

INTERN: Ngawang Dolker immigrated to the Twin Cities from Dharamsala, India with her family at the age of nine years old. Now a junior at the University of Minnesota, Ngawang is the Midwest Regional Coordinator of Students for a Free Tibet, as well as President of the University of Minnesota Chapter of Students for a Free Tibet. A Political Science Major, she has also taken Cinema Studies courses. Ngawang is fluent in English and Tibetan, and performs with the Minnesota Cultural Tibetan Dance Group.