Feature: Tibetan woman explores life of nobodies through camera lens

Purbu Tsering sells traditional Tibetan snacks on a busy pilgrim route in downtown Lhasa. A jolly old man and a devout Buddhist, he lives a simple life with his wife.

Nyima, who left her life as a shepherd in her far away hometown to be a teahouse waitress in Lhasa, makes her way through the city, fighting her homesickness.

La Hai, a Han migrant from China's interior, runs a grocery store in Lhasa and longs to make big money. Everyday he must put on a brave face despite struggling with stress, insecurity and a sense of emptiness.

All three people are nobodies on Tsekhor, a major pilgrim route around Potala Palace in the heart of Lhasa. Their stories are being told by Tenzin Sedon, a young Tibetan documentary film maker.

"I want to show, through their backgrounds and experience in Lhasa, how different people are linked in Tibet; a land of opportunities," said Sedon, 25, in an interview with Xinhua Friday.

She is passionate about profiling the common citizen, and giving plain, undecorated narration.

"I try to explore and display what's going on in Tibet from the perspectives of ordinary people," said Sedon. "Many filmmakers and critics tend to depict Tibet as a romantic and mysterious land, but I'd rather give an objective account."

"I hope my films are like a mirror through which everyone, Tibetans and non-Tibetans, can see themselves," she said.

Production on "Tsekhor", Sedon's latest work, has entered the final stage and the film is due to be released before the end of June. "I'm doing some finishing touches to make the stories of the three into an integral whole."

It is her third documentary, and the first one set in Tibet.

Sedon shot her first two documentaries, "A Taste of Life" and "The Horse and Horseman," while she was studying media arts at Plymouth University in Britain.

She began shooting "Tsekhor" shortly after she returned to Lhasa in 2014.

"The experience is far more challenging," she said. "This time it's not an assignment. I have to do all the screening, editing, dubbing and promotion work myself."

"When you're off to do something new, you may feel unsure, or even question your own ability," said Sedon. "I just tell myself -- time and again -- that I must carry on and never forget why I am doing this."

Sedon was born to a well-to-do family in Lhasa. Her father works at the local cultural heritage bureau and her mother served in the army before she retired and started her own business. "They always support me in everything I do, knowing all the while that I will go for it and enjoy the whole process."

At 13, Sedon was among the best-performing Tibetan kids to be admitted to middle school in Shanghai, under a government-sponsored program for Tibetan children to receive better education in big cities.

She entered a Shanghai university in 2010 and studied mass communication. She spent the last two years of her university life at Plymouth, under an exchange program between Chinese and British universities.

She's presently working at a film company under Tibet Television, earning 5,000 yuan a month. Most of her income is spent on film making. "It's not very costly, as I do most of the work myself, but the process is time consuming."

Sedon spends most of her spare time reading, jogging and watching classic films by Theo Angelopoulos and other noted filmmakers. "I dream to be an independent film maker myself someday," she said. "I'll always tell good stories, no matter how hard it is, or how far I have to go." Endi