January 4, 2015—Interview by Dana Knight [INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE] For this edition of Filmmakers and their Global Lens, The Independent’s special contributor, Dana Knight sat down with Norah Shapiro at DOC NYC 2014 to discuss the world premiere of her latest work, Miss Tibet: Beauty in Exile.
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‘Miss Tibet: Beauty in Exile’: DOC NYC Review
December 2, 2014—Review by Frank Scheck [HOLLYWOOD REPORTER] There are beauty pageants of all stripes, but few are as memorably exotic as the one depicted in Norah Shapiro‘s documentary chronicling the decade-old competition featuring Tibetan exiles. Run by a colorfully shady impresario who deserves a film of his own, the “beauty pageant with a difference” is… Continue Reading
Norah Shapiro and Tenzin Khecheo Find Real Beauty in “Miss Tibet”
November 25, 2014—Feature by Danny Peary [SAG HARBOR EXPRESS] Miss Tibet: Beauty in Exile fits my category Movies That Should Play in Sag Harbor. I expect it to play at various festivals, but the enthusiastic reception it had at a recent sold-out screening at Doc NYC indicates that a smart distributor might snap it up and… Continue Reading
New Documentary Examines A Tibetan Beauty Pageant Contestant’s Quest For Personal Identity And Heritage
November 25, 2014—Review by Audrey Cerchiara [BUST MAGAZINE] In Norah Shapiro’s documentary, Miss Tibet: Beauty in Exile, a Tibetan-American teenageer leaves home in Minnesota, dons a bikini and high heels, and heads to Dharamsala, India to vie for the crown of Miss Tibet. The film follows Tenzin Khecheo on an unusual search for her “Tibetan-ness” by… Continue Reading
DOC NYC Women Directors: Meet Norah Shapiro – ‘Miss Tibet: Beauty in Exile’
November 14, 2014—Feature by Kelcie Mattson [INDIEWIRE (WAH)] “Things can seem simple on the surface, but like much in life, are far more nuanced and complex; how a beauty pageant that in most contexts can be easily dismissed as a sexist construct, can play a deeper role in the Tibetan exile community.”
a miss tibet contestant takes new york
November 19, 2014—Feature by Alice Hines [ID MAGAZINE] There’s nothing more cliche than talking about world peace at a beauty pageant. But when the pageant is Miss Tibet, you can’t help but see it differently. Even when the contestants are posing on a stage in bikinis and 4-inch heels while Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” plays.
Miss Tibet: Beauty in Exile (2014) DOC NYC 2014
November 16, 2014—Review by Steve Kopian [UNSEEN FILMS] Doing what the best documentaries do, namely showing us something we’ve never seen or expected and pulled us into a new world, MISS TIBET is a real delight…
‘Miss Tibet: Beauty In Exile’ Is An Interesting Look At Another Culture
November 14, 2014—Review by Dave Ferguson [RED CARPET CRASH] Greetings again from the darkness. Proving once again that real life provides the most fascinating topics and characters, documentarian Norah Shapiro takes a look at cultural identity and the slow process of exiled-Tibetans adapting to the outside world. Her project takes us inside the Miss Tibet… Continue Reading
Film Review: ‘Miss Tibet: Beauty in Exile’ Through the eyes of Miss Tibet
November 13, 2014—Review by Joe Bendel [EPOCH TIMES] For 10 years and counting, second- and even third-generation exiles have competed in a beauty pageant to represent a country they have never lived in. That nation is Tibet, still held captive by their Chinese Communist occupiers…
Basil Tsiokos on DOC NYC, part 2 —Themes and perspectives
November 12, 2014—Highlight in interview of Basil Tsiokis by Anne-Katrin Titze [EYE FOR FILM]
High in the Indian Himalayan epicenter of the exiled Tibetan world, a maverick impresario stages a most un-Tibetan spectacle: a western-style beauty pageant. When a Tibetan-American teenager travels to India to participate in this “pageant with a difference,” she is forced to confront the intersection between her cultural identity and her life in the western world.
“Miss Tibet offers a unique roots-finding story that offers insight into the translation of tradition and cultural identity, a beautiful, but precarious balance.”—Bust Magazine
“A moving coming of age documentary” —Film Festivals.com
"This film is not just about a beauty pageant or the flamboyant Lobsang Wangyal's vision, but rather a candid exposure to the very fiber of Tibetan history, culture, religion, identity—it is a stealth activist film using a pageant ramp.
The film follows the beautiful Tenzin Khecheo examining her own growth and understanding of being a Tibetan while busy assimilating in the American culture. Tracing her personal victories and the powerful women she is today.” —Jigme Ugen, President, Tibetan National Congress
“...a film ostensibly about a beauty pageant, but truly about so much more--personal journeys, cultural identity, and the political struggle of a nation” —Carole McGranahan, University Colorado, Boulder
“[a]n incisive portrait of a younger generation of Tibetan exiles who long to embrace their ethnic identity and raise their voices in political activism, even if it means traversing a catwalk or two along the way.” —The Hollywood Reporter
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