MCLC: Doc Filmmaking and/as Activism

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Paola Iovene <iovene at uchicago.edu>
Subject: Doc Filmmaking and/as Activism
***********************************************************

Dear List Members,

please see forwarded message, and please join us if you are in the Chicago
area.

Sincerely, 
Paola Iovene

===============================================================

Documentary Filmmaking and/as Activism in East Asia

Please join us for three days of film screenings and discussion with three
of East Asia’s leading independent filmmakers at the University of Chicago

Film Screenings

 Venue for all film screenings: Rm 157, Cochrane Woods Art Center, 5540 S.
Greenwood Ave.

 Monday, April 14, 5:00 - 9:00 p.m.

 Featured Visiting Director: Cui Zi'en 崔子恩

Novelist, scholar, and Beijing Film Academy professor Cui Zi’en is a
pioneering figure in China’s queer arts and social movement. A driving
force behind the Beijing Queer Film Festival, Cui has made numerous
fiction and documentary films on the subjects of sexual and gender
identity, migrant workers, and public space. In his experimental films,
literary works and political activism, Cui's provocative portrayals of
queerness open up new possibilities of community and cultural pluralism
that challenge nationalism as the hegemonic discourse of identity in
contemporary China.

Schedule of Events:

5:00 – 6:10 pm: Queer China, ‘Comrade’ China 《誌同志》(China, 2009, 60
min., 
Mandarin with English subtitles)
This documentary explores transformations in China's LGBTQ (lesbian, gay,
bisexual, transgender, queer) culture and community that have taken place
in recent years. Containing interviews with dozens of activists, scholars,
and artists, Queer China is an important and engaging account of China’s
queer cultural history.

6:10– 6:45 pm Dinner (in the Cochrane Woods Art Center 1st Floor Lounge)

 6:45 – 8:00 pm: Night Scene 《夜景》(China, 2003, 73 min. Mandarin with
English subtitles).
Blurring the distinction between documentary and fiction, this film tells
the story of gay male hustlers in Beijing, a world that a college student
named Yang Yang enters after discovering his father is gay. By not
disclosing whether the individuals in the film are actors, real-life sex
workers, or both, Night Scene challenges our understanding of
representation to create a new kind of truth.

 8:00 – 9:00 pm Q&A with Cui Zi’en

Tuesday, April 15, 6:00 - 9:30 p.m.

Featured Visiting Directors: Kim Il-Rhan & Hong Ji-You (of the Collective
for Sexual Minority Cultures Pinks)
Kim Il-Rhan and Hong Ji-You are independent documentary filmmakers in
South Korea. Founding members of queer activist group Collective for
Sexual Minority Cultures Pinks, Kim and Hong engage the notion of social
justice not only from the position of sexual minorities, but also, more
generally, from the perspectives of those who have been marginalized
socially and economically. Their most recent film (Two Doors, 2011) is an
active pursuit of judiciary justice and political empowerment for a group
of residents violently evicted and then legally convicted for their
resistance in South Korea.

 6:00 – 6:45 pm Dinner (in the Cochrane Woods Art Center 1st Floor Lounge)

 6:45 – 8:35 pm Two Doors (두 개의 문) (South Korea, 2012, 101 min., Korean
with English subtitles). This documentary explores the Yongsan Tragedy of
2009, which took the lives of five tenants and one SWAT member during
suppression of an evictee occupation in South Korea. With the directors
being both filmmakers and activists, the film shows a high level of
consciousness and ingenuity in employing strategies for transforming the
audience from passive bystanders into active participants in the demand
for social and legal justice.

8:35 – 9:30 pm Q&A session with Kim Il-Rhan and Hong Ji-You

Master Classes with the Directors
Venue for both Master Classes: Rm 313, Judd Hall, 5835 S. Kimbark Ave.

Tuesday, April 15, 3:30 – 5:30 pm. Queer China: The Cinematic and Social
Practices of Cui Zi’en.

In this Master Class, Cui Zi’en will lead us in a discussion about queer
cinema and cultural activism in contemporary China.

 Wednesday, April 16, 4:00 – 6:00 pm.  Rethinking Documentary and
Spectatorship with Kim Il-Rhan and Hong Ji-You. In this Master Class, Kim
Il-Rhan and Hong Ji-You will lead us in a discussion about spectatorship
and social engagement as it relates to documentary film in South Korea.

 
If you have questions about this event, please contact one of the graduate
student organizers: Sohye Kim (sohyekim at uchicago.edu), Scott E. Myers
(smyers at uchicago.edu), or Chun Chun Ting (ccting at uchicago.edu).

Paola Iovene
East Asian Languages and Civilizations
The University of Chicago