About

Aaron Dennis and Alison Domzalski are a Brooklyn-based film and photo team working under the moniker “Mlendo Media”. They’re dedicated to creating art that helps other people.

Current Projects

They are currently in the post-production phase of “Blossoms in The Lotus Grove: The Children of Pema Ts’al” a documentary about modern Tibetan refugee life told specifically through the stories of the Pema Ts’al schools. The two schools, Pema Ts’al Mundgod in India and Pema Ts’al Sakya Monastic Institute in Pokhara, Nepal were founded by the Venerable Lama Pema Wangdak, who is based in Manhattan. Both schools aim to mold future leaders through a modern education combined with tradtional Tibetan Buddhist teachings. The Pokhara school is an institute for gifted monks-in-training while the Mundgod school is for talented and gifted lay students.

From January to August 2007 Aaron and Alison traveled throughout South Asia volunteering at the schools while filming/photographing daily life and interviews with the students. They also spent time in Dharamsala, India, the home of His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama, where they attended important ceremonies and interviewed leaders of the Tibetan Government-In-Exile, former political prisoners and others. In June they filmed throughout central Tibet while traveling with Lama Kunga Dhondup, the principal of Pema Ts’al Sakya Monastic Institute . In July, Alison and Aaron trekked to the remote Upper Mustang district of Nepal to film the homecoming of the monks from the Pokhara school.

All together they captured over 150 hours of High Definition video and 30,000 digital photographs. The documentary is scheduled to be finished in the summer of 2008 and a subsequent screening tour will follow.

Past Projects

Prior to their Asian journey, Alison and Aaron raised money to purchase digital cameras for the students at Pema Ts’al Mundgod, and during their stay at the school they taught the students the basics of photography

In Dharamsala, they helped Tibetan Children’s Village teacher Yeshi Khando edit a short video that was used for the Project Happiness documentary produced in conjunction with the the Dalai Lama Foundation.

Biographies

Aaron Dennis graduated from the film program of the University of Michigan in 2001 and since then has worked and volunteered across the globe. He spent time volunteering in France before working for six months in Africa as a media specialist for the Blantrye Malaria Project in Blantyre, Malawi. In 2003 he moved to New York where he worked on several PBS documentaries as motion-graphics designer and assistant editor. He has also worked as a freelance video editor, web designer and illustrator. He can be reached at aaron.dennis@gmail.com.

Alison received her Master of Science degree in Forensic Science from John Jay College in New York in 2004 and shortly after began working as a criminalist for the New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner while teaching undergraduate organic chemistry. During her undergraduate career at Michigan State University, she spent considerable time volunteering with visually impaired students and tutored Asian students in English. In 2007 her passion for humanitarian work and talent for photography led her on the journey of a lifetime across Asia where, in addition to the film project, she taught science, English, and photography to the Tibetan students in India and Nepal. Her photographs have been published in the Queens Chronicle, included in websites such as www.pawspot.com and www.schmap.com and are currently on exhibit at the Luther W. Brady Art Gallery at George Washington University in “Bringing Buddhism to America” until May 19, 2008. Her work has also been auctioned to raise funds for the Pema Ts’al schools. Contact her at calisonche@gmail.com.

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Mlendo.com was started in 2002. In the Chichewa language of Southeast Africa “mlendo” means visitor, traveler or stranger.