Erik Koto

Seattle-based filmmaker Erik Koto first discovered a love for the Himalaya on a 2,000-mile bike tour across Pakistan and western Tibet in 2001. Koto returned to the Himalaya in 2008 when he traveled to Ladakh to produce a fundraising film for the nonprofit Lamdon School. At that time, he was introduced to Morup Namgyal, a Himalayan folksinger who became the subject of Koto’s first feature-length documentary, The Song Collector (Mountainfilm 2016). Koto is active in his local documentary community, where he has served as a board member of 911 Media Arts, a nonprofit organization dedicated to filmmaking and video art.