Film lecturer at CSULB. Transnational, multilingual, migratory cinephilia.
E J-yong’s latest film addresses quite possibly every other marginalised community/identity and taboo yet pressing social issues that exist in contemporary South Korea. He accesses these identities and issues through a frank portrait of a woman in her mid-sixties, So-yeong, who is a prostitute; the only …
In Midi Z’s latest work, the primary subject is his older brother De-chin. De-chin committed…
Hong Kong International Film Festival’s omnibus ‘Beautiful’ series consists of four short films directed by four different filmmakers. This year’s series was helmed by (following the order of their films’ appearances) Nakata Hideo, Alec Su, Stanley Kwan, and Jia Zhangke. As with any omnibus film, the entire work runs the risk of being inconsistent …
This cluster of films significantly tugs at the fence that separates documentary and fiction as a way to re/present stories, experiences, and perspectives. Such stories, experiences, and perspectives range from the very personal, even familial, to the very public and sociopolitical. This group of films also varies in the degree to which each one blends …
Canada-trained filmmaker Gu Tao’s first full-length work chronicles in a blunt manner the effects of twenty-first century modernisation on the ethnic group of the Ewenkis. Gu is not unfamiliar with working with the Ewenkis, as his first two works also center on their community, ways of life, and …
As is expected by now from the Harvard Film Study Center + Sensory Ethnography Lab (SEL), this film co-directed by JP Sniadecki and Libbie Cohn is an immersive visual experience that allows the viewer to get to know a particular setting and how people interact with and/or use it. SEL films forgo an …
Made by renowned artist Ai Weiwei and his filmmaking team, Ping’an Yueqing begins with Qian Shunnan in his sparse home, crying out simultaneously praises of the Chinese Communist Party and calls for an investigation of and revenge for his son Qian Yunhui’s death. In 25 December 2010, in the eastern city of Yueqing of Zhejiang Province, village …
As the title of the series implies, the ‘real’ in these handful of recent independent Chinese documentary films is not clear cut or concise; it is complex and contested. In fact, these films identify an overarching …
Taking the form of the subgenre of the backstage musical, documentarian Ruby Yang follows a group of high school students, school administrators, and music faculty in Hong Kong as they prepare a musical show. Not surprisingly, the path that leads to the end-of-summer performance is anything but smooth or easy. Lest one think that the film …
In her latest feature film, Rachel Athina Tsangari crafts a Godot-esque, minimalist world set almost entirely in a medium-sized yacht with six men on board – plus the boat captain and chef — on its way back to Athens after an escapade of fishing. For these men of leisure, leisure takes a strange, confrontational hue when they decide to play …