Bhutanese director Pawo Choyning Dorji and cellist Yo-Yo Ma have collaborated on "A Song for the Snow Lion," a short documentary that premiered at the Telluride Film Festival, exploring the threat posed by melting Himalayan glaciers. The project comes as flash floods in Nepal, triggered by a collapsing glacier in August 2026, killed more than 1,300 people, underscoring the real-world dangers of glacial melt that Bhutan faces too, where thawing ice has turned glaciers into lakes capable of catastrophic bursts. Ma approached Dorji after seeing his Oscar-nominated film "Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom," wanting to highlight his concerns about global warming's effect on the region.

The film features Ma performing alongside Bhutanese folk singer Kelden Lhamo on a song from "Lunana," with lyrics evoking the country's deep cultural connection to glaciers and nature. Dorji notes Bhutan is the world's only carbon-negative nation, with a constitutional requirement to maintain at least 60% forest cover, currently standing at 72%. The film's title draws on Bhutanese folklore about a mythical snow lion said to inhabit the glaciers, symbolising what stands to be lost, and both Dorji and Ma argue that storytelling, rather than politics alone, is needed to build the shared narrative required to tackle climate change.