Gaetano Kazuo Maida is the executive director of the Buddhist Film Foundation, a documentary filmmaker, and a specialist in tea culture

Whether good or bad, Karma (Tenzin Chokyi Gyatso), a young Tibetan journalist from the Big Apple, arrives in Dharamsala, home to the Dalai Lama in exile. Her research into the stories of former Tibetan political prisoners leads her to Dhondup (Jampa Kalsang), an ex-monk who fled Tibet after being imprisoned for subversive activities. Dhondup enlists her help in a seemingly innocent endeavor to deliver a prized charm box to a long-missing resistance fighter. Set in the majestic Himalayan foothills, Dreaming Lhasa's journey of discovery becomes one of self-discovery as Karma is immersed in the complicated world of the Tibetan diaspora where a younger generation, born in India, wrestles with shifting identities. The film's score, much of it DJ-sampled Tibetan folk music and indigenous Himalayan hip-hop, speaks most brashly of the hybrid nature of being a refugee.