When I first learned about the work of Dr. Marc Lieberman and the Tibet Vision Project in 2000 I was excited at the prospect of developing into a one-hour broadcast/film festival documentary.  After September 11th, 2001 making this film became a burning passion.

Like nothing else could, the events on that day and their aftermath sharpened in my mind the question of what America's role in the world should be. Dr. Lieberman and his colleagues work in Tibet is not only a wonderful story of hope but it also presents a model of cross-cultural cooperation and American engagement in the developing world which I hope others might seek to replicate. The Tibet Vision Project might be considered part of the growing trend of "medical diplomacy" although as the film illustrates Dr. Lieberman's motivation for starting the project in 1995 were deeply personal if not spiritual.

Although there were a number of formidable obstacles in making a film in Tibet with a limited budget, I got lucky on a number of fronts. Typically, in Tibet, as is the case throughout the rest of China, foreign production crews are rarely given permission to travel freely, especially in the more remote provinces where Visioning Tibet was shot.

However, the Tibet Vision Project enjoys a cordial relationship with the authorities in Tibet as a result of helping to dramatically improve the skills of the eye department in the largest hospital in Lhasa.  As a result, in documenting the work we were able to travel freely and film in rural communities, which have been off-limits to Westerners for over 50 years. This further allowed us to follow our Tibetan subjects without much interference and build a trust and rapport with these extraordinary people which I think provides for the most powerful moments in the film.

The crew and equipment had to be limited to bare minimum. There was essentially two of us: Kirk Schroeder who did the principle cinematography and myself.  We used local volunteers, when possible as PA's and grips .  We were fortunate to benefit greatly from huge leaps in video technology over the past couple of years which allowed us to shoot and capture this visually-rich story on a relatively inconspicuous production kit.

We had some close calls, having to think quickly on our feet to save the equipment and film from members of the People's Liberation Army who had not gotten the memo that we were there with the permission of the local authorities.