AsiaLENS
AEMS Documentary and Independent Film Series
at the Spurlock Museum

The Silk Road of Pop
Directed by Sameer Farooq. Co-directed by Ursula Engel.
Produced by Stijn Deklerck.
2013. 53 minutes.

Post-screening discussion with Liwei Zhang
Department of Political Science, Jilin University, China and VASP Scholar, UofI.

Tuesday, February 12, 2019 - 7pm
Spurlock Museum, Knight Auditorium, 600 S. Gregory Street, Urbana, IL

Description:

The Silk Road of Pop sketches a unique portrait of the vibrant pop music scene among the Uyghur Muslims in North-West China. Featuring traditional musicians, hip-hop crews, rock stars and dynamic music fans, this documentary taps into the rhythmical zeitgeist of what it means to be young and Uyghur in China, showing how music becomes a liberating element for a minority trying to assert its identity within a repressive environment.

Resources:
View a trailer of the film here.
The Silk Road of Pop website
Distributed by Smoke Signal Projects.

The Song Collector
Directed by Erik Koto.
2016. 54 minutes.

Introduction and post-screening discussion with Stefan P. Fiol
Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology, College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati.

Tuesday, March 12, 2019 - 7pm
Spurlock Museum, Knight Auditorium, 600 S. Gregory Street, Urbana, IL

Description:

Set high in the Indian Himalaya, Ladakh is home to a rich Buddhist culture and an ancient tradition of folk singing. In the 1960s as economic development thrust change upon Ladakh, Morup Namgyal, Ladakh's greatest folk artist, began his lifelong efforts to preserve his beloved folk songs.  ​

Through the lives of three generations of the Namgyal family, The Song Collector explores the uneasy relationship between culture and development and ultimately offers a new vision, inspired by the Buddhist concept of the ‘middle path’, that seeks to find a beneficial coexistence between tradition and modernization.

Resources:
View a trailer of the film here.
The Song Collector website

Finding KUKAN
Directed by Robin Lung.
2017. 75 minutes.

Introduction and post-screening discussion TBD

Tuesday, April 9, 2019 - 7pm
Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory Street, Urbana, IL

Description:

KUKAN, a landmark color film that revealed the atrocities of World War II China to audiences around the world, was the first ever American feature documentary to receive an Academy Award in 1942. After World War II, the film became lost and no copy of it could be found. When filmmaker Robin Lung discovers a badly damaged film print of the "lost" KUKAN, she pieces together the inspirational tale of the two renegades behind the making of it -- Chinese American playwright Li Ling-Ai and cameraman Rey Scott.

Resources:
View a trailer of the film here.
Finding KUKAN website
Distributed by New Day Films.

Last Updated January 10, 2019