Kesang Tseten’s documentaries have been screened regularly in international film festivals such as the International Documentary Film Festival of Amsterdam IDFA), the International Documentary Film Festival of Leipzig, Yamagata, Thessaloniki, Krakow, Viennale, Margaret Mead, and the Mumbai International Film Festival, among many. The award-winning Who will be a Gurkha was selected for IDFA’s feature length competition, aired on Al Jazeera, and enjoyed a theatrical release in Nepal. The trilogy on Nepali migrant workers in the Gulf States afford a rare glimpse into a significant though little-known migrant reality. Other titles Hospital, We Homes Chaps, Castaway Man, Machhendranath and Trembling Mountain have received considerable acclaim.
Tseten has been recipient of grants from Busan, Jan Vrijman Fund and IDFA Bertha Fund, Sundance Documentary Institute, and the Finnish Foreign Ministry.
He wrote the original screenplay for the feature Mukundo, awarded Best Script by Nepal Motion Pictures, and Nepal’s entry to the academy awards, as well as KARMA. Current projects include the pre-Buddhist Bonpos of the Himalaya, a revisit of Nepali migrant workers, Jackson Heights Himalaya, and a revisit of the site of We Corner People. He is also at work on a Nepali feature inspired by les miserables.
He is a graduate of Dr Graham’s School in India, Amherst College and Columbia University in the US.
