Choosing a Site and Gaining Access

This is an important detail to think about before going into the field. I have considered to some degree what "sites" I would like to explore with my film, but I should start getting more specific.

My starting point is to look at the Tong-Len organization. I still need to contact this group, but I would love to have access to the group, the people running the group, and some of their different service projects. I hope that it will not be too hard to get involved this way. What may be a little hard is I want to also observe this group from the receivers' point of view. This may be more difficult because I may not be able to identify or find anyone in this category until I actually get to India. I think it is important though, especially with my topic, to try and get equal Tibetan Indian perspective. I liked what Neuman said about teaming up with different people from different backgrounds to see something from different angles. This is what I will try to do, seeing things through Tibetan, Indian, as well as my own eyes.

Besides the Tong-Len organization and the people it serves, some general sites I would like to explore are the following (permitted that they are ethical places to research):
-All Tibetan community
-All Indian community
-Mixed Indian/Tibetan Community
-Tibetan and Indian holy or spiritual locations
-A few Tibetan and Indian homes
-Tibetan and Indian places of work

The Tong-Len organization and the people it helps will hopefully be a more in-depth study and something that I will be more involved in through participation and talking to people, whereas, things like holy or spiritual places may be strictly observational. I will need to be careful to talk to people about where it is acceptable for me to go and interact and film, and where it is not appropriate for me to do so.