Utica University to host one of the first theatrical screenings worldwide of award-winning Himalayan filmmaker’s latest work

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Utica University to host one of the first theatrical screenings worldwide of award-winning Himalayan filmmaker’s latest work

Film: Pig at the Crossing

For years, the FILMS on Thursday series has gathered stories from around the world and brought them to the Utica University campus.

Now, Utica University and the FILMS on Thursday series will play host to a rare screening of Pig at the Crossing, the latest from award-winning and internationally-recognized filmmaker and Tibetan monk Khyentse Norbu.

“I've shown his work before (Travellers and Magicians, Looking for a Lady with Fangs and a Moustache),” says Professor Jeff Miller, who directs the FILMS on Thursday series. “He’s been a leading figure and mentor in the Himalayan filmmaking community across Bhutan, Nepal, and Tibet. This, his most recent and most ambitious film, was rejected by over 30 film festivals, from Sundance to Cannes to Venice to Tokyo to Dharamshala.”

Norbu then chose the unorthodox route of premiering the film online with what seemed to be no plans to distribute in the United States or elsewhere. For Professor Miller, the hunt was on.

“I feel it's a privilege to be one of the very first to show this film in a theater anywhere in the world.”
Professor Jeff Miller

“Knowing the quality of his work, I scoured the internet for clues as to how I might reach him. I reached out to fellow Himalayan filmmakers whom I've come to know through programming the series, and then discovered the email address of the film's producer, Druksel Dorji. I emailed him asking whether I could secure the rights to screen the film and included the list of the ten or so Himilayan films that I have included in the campus film series in recent years, and much to my surprise I received a response within two weeks — and he immediately said yes!”

In the 2024 film, a young man abruptly dies in an accident, then finding himself in an unfamiliar realm between death and rebirth in which he must face the consequences of his past actions, choose to right his wrongs, and let go of his attachment to his former self or be trapped to wander in a dream-like in-between state forever.

Martin Scorcese calls it “Such a beautiful movie. Sweet, sad, and moving.”

The tiny handful of events where the film has been screened have also generated rave reviews. And soon that exclusive list of theatrical venues will include Utica University - Pig at the Crossing screens Thursday, September 18, 2025 at 7 p.m. in Macfarlane Auditorium. Like all screenings in the FILMS on Thursday series, it is free and open to the public.

“I feel it's a privilege to be one of the very first to show this film in a theater anywhere in the world,” says Professor Miller. “And I hope students, faculty, staff and member so the surrounding community will come see this film which Deepti DCunha, Artistic Director at Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, called, ‘a calm and spiritual experience.’”