Face TV screening exclusive interview with Dalai Lama
When the Dalai Lama, the spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism, visited New Zealand recently he granted one formal
television interview – to Face TV.
The resulting 45 minute special, “The Meeting of the Minds” will screen on Face TV (Sky channel 83 and UHF41 in
Auckland) on July 24 at 8.30pm.
There were three reasons – noted New Zealand theologian Sir Lloyd Geering, programme maker and interviewer Noel Cheer
and the diversity and public broadcasting nature of Face TV.
Face TV CEO Jim Blackman says the combination of the Dalai Lama and Sir Lloyd as his interviewer, proved to be a real
match.
Sir Lloyd, now 95 and Professor Emeritus of religious studies at Victoria University in Wellington, has embraced
controversy in his time even being charged with heresy in the late 1960s for his views. The Dalai Lama showed a matching
sharp wit and sense of humour during their meeting.
“I am only sorry that I didn’t have my camera on me when, after the recording was over, the Dalai Lama and Sir Lloyd
walked off the set hand in hand,” Blackman says.
When His Holiness, as the Dalai Lama is known, visited Dunedin, Christchurch and Auckland on a three day tour] his three
public talks and one Buddhist teaching were sold out.
Face TV interviewer Noel Cheer, renowned for his longer format interviews with some of New Zealand’s biggest names, had
heard the Dalai Lama was heading to New Zealand to pay respects to an old friend in Dunedin and suggested to his Face TV
colleagues that they pitch to do the interview.
The University of Otago chipped in with a venue and its facilities, following His Holiness holding the Dunedin meeting
there.
For a while it was on again and off again, but the combination of Sir Lloyd and Face TV’s reputation for reaching out to
the many nationalities that make up New Zealand society and giving the often marginalised a voice, won through.
The result is a unique, in depth conversation with the man who has dedicated his life to the promotion of basic human
values or secular ethics in the interest of human happiness, the fostering of inter-religious harmony and the
preservation of Tibet's Buddhist culture - a culture of peace and non-violence.
Face is available for viewing by all domestic SKY subscribers on channel 083 & UHF 41 in Auckland
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