AAS / ICAS Film Expo 2011
Film Descriptions:
China, the Empire of Art?
Directed by Sheng Zhimin and Emma Tassy.
2010. 52 min. China.
Distributed by: Cinema Guild; www.cinemaguild.com
A look at the bustling Chinese contemporary art scene, focusing on artists from both Beijing and Shanghai, with interviews shot on-location in the artists’ studios.
Thursday, March 31, 2011, 8:00am
The Fall of Womenland
Directed by Xiaodan He.
2009. 46 min. China.
Distributed by: Cinema Guild; www.cinemaguild.com
The Mosuo people, a small minority situated in the southwest of China, are one of the last remaining matriarchal societies In the world. The Fall of Womenland explores their history and present way of life, and the impact of tourism and globalization.
Thursday, March 31, 2011, 10:20am
Broken Pots, Broken Dream
Directed by Maris Gillette.
2009. 21 min. China.
(Self distributed) ; http://tiny.cc/bpbd09
This film explores the human cost of global capitalism in Jingdezhen, China’s historical porcelain capital, as it moves through the history of the industry, through imperial, socialist, and the neo-liberal restructuring occurring today.
Thursday, March 31, 2011, 11:10am
1428
Directed by Haibin Du
2009. 60 mins. China.
Distributed by dGenerate Films; www.dgeneratefilms.com
Haibin Du’s award winning documentary of the earthquake that devastated Sichuan Province in 2008 as it explores how victims, citizens, and government respond to a national tragedy.
Thursday, March 31, 2011, 12:00pm
Bored in Heaven
Directed by Kenneth Dean
2010. 80 mins. China.
Please send purchase inquiries to: kenneth.dean@mcgill.ca
Bored in Heaven explores ritual sensation, local power and performativity during Chinese New Year celebrations in the villages and towns of Putian, Fujian.
View Trailer Here
Thursday, March 31, 2011, 3:25pm
Last Train Home
Directed by Lixin Fan
2010. 87 mins. China.
Distributed by Zeitgesit Films; www.zeitgeistfilms.com
Strikingly beautiful, Last Train Home is an intimate observation of one fractured family that sheds light on the human cost of China’s ascendance as an economic superpower.
Thursday, March 31, 2011, 7:00pm
Tongzhi in Love
Directed by Ruby Yang.
2008. 30 mins. China.
Distributed by Cinema Guild; www.cinemaguild.com
An intimate and beautifully made documentary that looks at what it’s like to be gay in modern China.
Friday, April 1, 2011, 10:05am
From Jean-Paul Sartre to Teresa Teng: Contemporary Cantonese Art in the 1980s
Directed by Asia Art Archive
2010. 45 mins. China/Hong Kong.
Distributed by Asia Art Archive as part of the project:
Materials of the Future: Documenting Contemporary Chinese Art from 1980-1990. Based on primary research, rare film footage and personal interviews with key artists, this documentary links the "Reading Fever" that gripped the Chinese art world in the 1980s to the experimentalism and verve of artists and critics in South China.
Friday, April 1, 2011, 10:40am
Coup d'Etat 1955
Directed by Martin Ku & Chi-cheng Wang
2003. 90 mins. Taiwan.
Distributed by Public Television Service, Taiwan; eng.pts.org.tw
A fascinating historical document in itself, the film explores an enigmatic coup involving the U.S. and China’s “ever-victorious general” of World War II, General Sun Li-jen, who spent 33 years under house arrest for his presumed role in it.
Friday, April 1, 2011, 3:00pm
Cold Mountain: Han Shan
Directed by Mike Hazard & Deb Wallwork
2009. 28 mins. China.
Distributed by www.thecie.org
Cold Mountain is a half hour film portrait of the Tang Dynasty Chinese poet Han Shan, a.k.a. Cold Mountain. Recorded on location in China, America and Japan, Burton Watson, Red Pine, Jim Lenfestey and the legendary Gary Snyder describe the poet's life and recite poems.
Friday, April 1, 2011, 4:30pm
Please Vote for Me
Directed by Weijun Chen; Produced by Don Edkins
2007. 52 min. China.
Distributed by Steps International; www.whydemocracy.net
In an elementary school in the city of Wuhan in central China, eight-year old children compete for the position of class monitor. Please Vote for Me is a film about an experiment with democracy in China.
Saturday, April 2, 2011, 9:00am
Lessons of the Loess Plateau
Directed by John D. Liu
2008. 52 mins. China.
Please send purchase inquiries to: augenstein@eemp.org
The Loess Plateau is home to more than 50 million poor farmers who have suffered centuries of severe soil erosion, leading to massive environmental degradation and poverty. This film documents a remarkable paradigm shift and identifies why and how a joint project has completely changes the landscape of the region.
View Film Online
Saturday, April 2, 2011, 1:15pm
Though I Am Gone
Directed by Hu Jie
2007. 68 mins. China.
Distributed by dGenerate Films; www.dgeneratefilms.com
In 1966, the principal of an all-girls school, was beaten to death by her students. The incident, one of the first to ignite the cultural revolution, is documented here as told to the filmmaker by her husband, in this gripping film.
Saturday, April 2, 2011, 2:10pm
The Sun Behind the Clouds
Directed by Ritu Sarin & Tenzing Sonam
2010. 79 mins. Tibet/China.
Zeitgesit Films; www.zeitgeistfilms.com
This film takes a provocative yet reasoned look at the struggles of the Tibetan people for cultural preservation. It includes the divisions within the Tibetan movement between the Dalai Lama and his youthful supporters exemplified by the events of 2008.
Thursday, March 31, 2011, 2:00pm
Bhutan: Taking the Middle Path to Happiness
Directed by Tom Vendetti
2007. 56 mins. Bhutan.
Distributed by findingutopia.org
This Emmy Award winning documentary presents an intimate look at people who value Gross National Happiness over Gross National Product. View Trailer Here
Friday, April 1, 2011, 11:40am
Summer Pasture
Directed by Lynn True & Nelson Walker. Co-Director: Tsering Perlo
2010. 86 mins. Tibet.
Please send purchase inquiries to info@khamfilmproject.org
Summer Pasture chronicles one summer with a young Tibetan nomad family as they struggle to reconcile their traditional way of life with a rapidly modernizing Tibet.
Friday, April 1, 2011, 7:00pm
Shielding the Mountains
Directed by Kunga Lama ; Produced by Emily Yeh
2010. 20 mins. Tibet/China.
Please send purchase inquiries to: Emily.yeh@colorado.edu
Why have Tibetans become environmentalists? How do Tibetan conceptions of nature different from Western ones? This film explores these questions through the story of two Tibetan environmental leaders in contemporary China.
Saturday, April 2, 2011, 11:45am
Can't Go Native
Directed by David Plath
2010. 56 mins. Japan.
Distributed by MPG; www.cantgonative.com
Upbeat, humorous portrait of the 50-year-long engagement between the people in Mizusawa, northeastern Japan, and anthropologist Keith Brown, who first went there in 1961 to collect field data for his doctoral dissertation.
Friday, April 1, 2011, 8:00am
Witness to Hiroshima
Directed by Kathy Sloane; Co-produced by Michele Mason
2010. 16 min. Japan.
Distributed by witnesstohiroshima.com
Keiji Tsuchiya uses 12 powerful watercolors to tell the story of his experience in Hiroshima as a 17-year soldier immediately after the atomic bombing, and how it influenced the direction of his life.
Saturday, April 2, 2011, 9:55am
Shugendô Now: the Lotus Ascent [educator version]
Directed by Jean-Marc Abela & Mark McGuire
2009. 42 mins. Japan.
Distributed by Enpower Pictures; www.shugendonow.com
Shugendô practitioners perform actions from shamanism, Shintô, Daoism, and Tantric Buddhism. More poetic than analytical, this film explores how a group of modern Japanese people integrate Mountain Learning with urban life.
View Trailer Here
Saturday, April 2, 2011, 10:50am
ANPO: Art x War [educator version]
Directed by Linda Hoaglund
2010. 56 mins. Japan.
Distributed by www.anpomovie.com
ANPO: Art x War reveals the story of resistance to U.S. military bases which remain in Japan today, through a collage of paintings, photographs, anime, and films by Japan’s foremost artists.
Saturday, April 2, 2011, 12:15pm
Dishonored
Directed by Sigrun Norderval & Gard A. Andreassen
2008. 52 mins. Pakistan.
Distributed by Icarus Films; icarusfilms.com
Dishonored documents the remarkable story of Mukhtar Mai, whose rape and subsequent demand for justice received media coverage worldwide, and which over the next few years led to a dramatic series of legal proceedings through Pakistan's court system.
Thursday, March 31, 2011, 1:00pm
This is a Music: Reclaiming an Untouchable Drum
Directed by Zoe Sherinian
2011. 60 mins. India.
Please send purchase inquiries to: zsherinian@ou.edu
This documentary is about the psychological and economic processes of transformation for a group of lowest caste drummers from India. As they reclaim their performance as respectable, the question becomes, can they sustain these changes in the village context?
Friday, April 1, 2011, 12:50pm
Who Killed Chea Vichea?
Directed by Bradley Cox
2010. 56 mins. Cambodia.
Distributed by Loud Mouth Films; www.loudmouthfilms.net
Who Killed Chea Vichea? follows a five-year investigation into the assassination of Cambodia’s most prominent trade union leader and the framing of two innocent men. It presents a multi-faceted picture of the current state of politics, human rights, and the rule of law in Cambodia. View Trailer Here
Friday, April 1, 2011, 9:00am
What’s the Point? [At Stake]
Directed by Iwan Setiawan & Muhammad Ichsan
2008. 23 mins. Indonesia.
Distributed by www.kalyanashirafound.org
A closer look at the current practice of female circumcision continuing in urban Indonesia. Shot by local filmmakers, the film offers a close-up and personal look at the context and confused beliefs behind female circumcision.
Friday, April 1, 2011, 2:00pm
Our Children’s Fund [At Stake]
Directed by Ucu Augustin & Nia Dinata
2008. 26 mins. Indonesia.
Distributed by www.kalyanashirafound.org
A film is about mothers whose daily pay does not cover their basic expenses. With a standard fee of 10.000 rupiah (US $1), these women sell themselves for sex order to make ends meet.
Friday, April 1, 2011, 2:30pm
Laos: So You Think the War is Over
Directed by Network Ireland Television
2009. 25 mins. Laos.
Distributed by Films for the Humanities & Sciences; www.films.com
Laos, because of its involvement in the Vietnam War, is frequently cited as, per capita, the most bombed country in the world. This program shows how a conflict that officially ended over three decades ago still kills and maims innocent civilians.
Saturday, April 2, 2011, 10:25am
Family Victim
Directed by Robert Lemelson
2010. 38 mins. Indonesia.
Distributed by DER www.der.org
Family Victim explores how a Javanese family manages a troubled and troublesome member. This film examines the multiple ways the family interprets dilemmas, as he finally matures into culturally defined adulthood.
Saturday, April 2, 2011, 3:20pm
Koryu: Southern Women
Directed by Kim Soyoung
2000. 76 min. South Korea.
Distributed by AsiaPacificFilms; www.asiapacificfilms.com
Filmmaker and professor, Kim Soyoung , creates a fascinating visual narrative about the experiences of South Korean women past and present, and the beginnings of a women’s consciousness in South Korea.
Thursday, March 31, 2011, 9:00am
Film introduced by the director, Q&A to follow.
The Red Chapel
Directed by Mads Brügger
2009. 88 mins. North Korea/Denmark.
Distributed by Lorber Films; kinolorberedu.com
A trio of Danish comedians, who call themselves "The Red Chapel", pretend to be regime sympathizers and mount an absurd variety show in Pyongyang.
Saturday, April 2, 2011, 7:00pm
Last updated February 14, 2011 
