About twenty to thirty videos will be selected for scheduled showings. Criteria utilized in the selection process include timeliness, broad appeal to the scholarly community, and examples of new field work.  All films included in the program will be listed in the AAS Annual Meeting Program Addendum and described in handouts or brochures that will be available at the meeting. We will also supply a list of distributors and contact information.  Films the length of a typical class period (40 minutes or less), or which have segments the length of a class period, are encouraged (but are by no means necessary).

If you have seen a film you would like to recommend, please let the filmmaker (or AEMS) know. Filmmakers wishing to apply can find the instructions and application form here: http://www.aems.illinois.edu/downloads/AAS_Submission.pdf . The deadline is for submission   December 10th, 2010. 

Tear gas explodes. Choking fumes pollute the air. Soldiers rush the crowd of monks, tossing them into trucks. The protest is over. Many monks have been beaten; one is dead - the result of month's-long protest of an oppressive government in Rangoon, Burma in fall 2007. Within months, authorities will have arrested dozens of monks and fired upon citizens protesting in the streets. These images should enrage: Signs of political oppression and persecution captured by the trembling hands of a journalist videotaping subjugation and murder. "It is a difficult job," the narrator says. "But we try."

Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country is a story of journalism at its most powerful moments: the times when people become so enraged that they become empowered, when the video camera, the still image, one's persistence and sacrifice merge to tell the stories that no one else can hear and tell - or maybe that some people don't want to hear. Certainly, Burma VJ tells a story that many in power within that country don't want told.

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Directed by Karin Muller. 2006. 225 minutes.
Narrated in English

Reviewed by Nancy Jervis

Japanland, a two-disc DVD set based on a PBS TV series which first aired in 2005, has now been reformatted especially for classroom use but will be of interest to anyone curious about Japan. Told from the perspective of Karin Mueller, a solo-traveling Japanese-speaking documentary filmmaker, (see bio below) Japanland contains 24 short segments grouped into four chronological episodes, each segment lasting 2-8 minutes in length, ideal for classroom use. The episodes cover three thematic areas: contemporary urban life, religious practice, and folk arts. Each episode, as well as each short segment, can be viewed either individually or in the chronological order of Mueller's year-long trip, accessed through a convenient DVD menu.

Japanland is really two stories, intertwined: Karin Mueller's personal quest to find the "real" Japan, and the story of Japan itself.

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AsiaLENS is a series of free public film screenings and lecture / discussion programs -- organized by AEMS in collaboration with the Spurlock Museum -- presenting recent documentary films on issues reflecting contemporary life in Asia.

AsiaLENS Spring 2011 Calendar:

Last Train Home (Lixin Fan, 2009, 85 min.)

Tuesday, February 1, 2011 - 7:00pm

Dishonored (Sigrun Norderval & Gard A. Andreassen, 2007, 52 min.)
Tuesday, March 1, 2011 - 7:00pm

The Sweetest Embrace: Return to Afghanistan (Najeeb Mirza, 2008, 74 min.)

Tuesday, April 5, 2011 - 7:00pm

In The Matter of Cha Jung Hee (Deann Borshay Liem, 2010, 62 min.)

Tuesday, May 3, 2011 - 7:00pm

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