
Singing A Great Dream: The Revolutionary Songs and Life of Khusiram Pakhrin
People’s singer, songwriter, and Maoist cultural leader Khusiram Pakhrin’s musical journey through nearly 4 decades of political movements and revolution in Nepal.
Singing A Great Dream Trailer
Directors
Bhakta Syangtan & Anna Stirr
Directors’ Statement
This is the first film about Nepal’s revolutionary singer-songwriter Khusiram Pakhrin, and so far the only film that focuses on the songs of Nepal’s Maoist movement. From the 1980s through 2006, their live performances were often banned and rarely photographed or recorded; hence we rely on Khusiram Pakhrin and his fellow performers for oral history and rare photos and footage of underground performances.
Bhakta grew up hearing Khusiram Pakhrin’s songs, and found them incredibly moving. Anna first heard his songs during Nepal’s People’s War, around 2004, and recognized in them a depth of feeling and poetic imagery beyond the usual fare of political protest music. Bhakta began to make a documentary about Khusiram while Anna was digitizing his photo archive; we met through a mutual friend who thought Bhakta should interview Anna for the film. Shortly after the interview, Khusiram suddenly passed away. When we met again, we joined forces to make this tribute to him and his songs. We thank his family, party, and fellow artists for their generous assistance with this film.
Selected Awards

Winner: Best Documentary (International) and Best Director (International) at Darbhanga International Film Festival, India, February 2020.

Winner: Exceptional Merit, Docs Without Borders Film Festival, 2020

Honorable Mention in Films with Budgets under $5000 category. “Authentic and very economical in its presentation. Well designed and very monies conscious” – Monkey Bread Tree Film Awards

What we’ve been up to…
“Singing A Great Dream” in the News
- AAS Film Expo 2021Singing A Great Dream is featured at the Association for Asian Studies Film Expo 2021! It’s available to view on demand from the conference platform all week (March 21-25), and we will have a Q&A session from 10:30-10:55 Hawaii StandardContinue reading “AAS Film Expo 2021”
- Singing a Great Dream Online Premiere: November 21, 2020, 9:00 amPlease join us for our live premiere of Singing A Great Dream, on November 21, 2020 at 9 am Nepal time, on Facebook Live.
- ProToPost Communism International Film FestivalBack when we finished the film, we thought that if we didn’t get into any other festivals, we’d surely get into this one. We did! COVID has kept us from traveling to Italy, while making this festival available to soContinue reading “ProToPost Communism International Film Festival”