Forget Me Not
Directed by Sun Hee Engelstoft. 2019. Korea. 83 minutes.
Country/region featured: South Korea
ONLINE Q&A with Sun Hee Engelstoft.
Saturday, March 26, 8:30am
Forget Me Not follows three unwed mothers staying at a shelter in the countryside on Jeju Island in South Korea. Each mother must decide if she wants to keep the baby or give it up for adoption. Engelstoft’s sensitive portrait brings us close to a forbidden world and through her own experience as a Korean adoptee, she gives a deeply personal and extraordinary insight into a culture in which women can't choose their own fate.
Distributed by Grasshopper Film.
http://store.grasshopperfilm.com/forget-me-not.html
http://www.finalcutforreal.dk/forget-me-not
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Kingdom of Archers
Directed by Robert Hixon Hanson. 2021. USA. 87 minutes.
Country/region featured: Bhutan
ONLINE Q&A with Robert Hixon Hanson
Saturday, March 26, 10:05am
Traditional archery matches are community-wide events involving song, dance, food, and drink in Bhutan, but internal and external forces are changing the game. Imported high-tech equipment is replacing traditional bamboo bows and arrows, and a government campaign has introduced international-style archery competition to every school. Through individual stories intertwined with interviews from the country’s leaders, this film explores many facets of archery in Bhutan, addressing the challenges of cultural preservation against the forces of modernization, westernization, and economic development.
Distributed by Passion River Films | http://edu.passionriver.com/kingdom-of-archers.html
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Geographies of Kinship
Produced and directed by Deann Borshay Liem. 2019. USA. 80 minutes.
Country/region featured: Republic of Korea, United States, Switzerland, Sweden
IN-PERSON Q&A with Deann Borshay Liem.
Saturday, March 26, 11:35am
In this powerful tale about the rise of Korea’s global adoption program, four adult adoptees return to their country of birth and recover the personal histories that were erased when they were adopted. Raised in foreign families, each sets out on a journey to reconnect with their roots, mapping the geographies of kinship that bind them to a homeland they never knew. Geographies of Kinship will have its premiere national broadcast as part of America Reframed on public television’s World Channel on May 19th, 2022.
Distributed by Mu Films.
www.mufilms.org
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Far East Deep South
Directed by Larissa Lam. Produced by Baldwin Chiu. 2020. USA. 77 minutes.
Country/region featured: Mississippi, USA
IN-PERSON Q&A with Larissa Lam and Baldwin Chiu.
Saturday, March 26, 1:05pm
When a Chinese-American man from California, travels to Mississippi to visit the grave of his father who abandoned him as a baby, he and his family stumble upon surprising revelations that change their lives. Along the way, they meet a diverse group of local residents and historians, who shed light on the racially complex history of Chinese immigrants in the segregated South. Their emotional journey leads them to discover how deep their roots run in America but how the Chinese Exclusion Act separated their family for generations.
Distributed by New Day Films. | newday.com | FarEastDeepSouth.com
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Beethoven in Beijing
A film by Jennifer Lin and Sharon Mullally. 2021. USA. 86 minutes.
Country/Region Featured: China
IN-PERSON Q&A with Jennifer Lin
Saturday, March 26, 2:35pm
Beethoven in Beijing spotlights the resurgence of classical music in China through the legacy of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the first American orchestra to perform in China in 1973. Following the end of China’s Cultural Revolution, when Western classical music was banned in favor of politically themed works, the onset of “Beethoven fever” began. Narrated by American and Chinese musicians and historians, the film explores the impact of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s historic tour on China both then and now.
Distributed by History Making Productions.
www.historymakingproductions.com | beethoveninbeijing.com
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Our Time Machine
A film by Yang Sun & S. Leo Chiang. 2020. China. 81 minutes.
Country/Region Featured: China
ONLINE Q&A with S. Leo Chiang
Saturday, March 26, 4:10pm
When artist Maleonn realizes that his father suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, he creates “Papa’s Time Machine,” a magical, autobiographical stage performance featuring life-size mechanical puppets. Through the production of this play, the two men confront their mortality before time runs out and memories are lost forever.
Distributed by Passion River Films.
http://edu.passionriver.com/our-time-machine-documentary.html
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Banyak Ayam Banyak Rejeki (Many Chickens, Lots of Luck)
Directed by Önar Önarsson & Riboet Akbar. Produced by Koes Yuliadi & Dag
Yngvesson. 2020. Indonesia. 102 minutes.
Country/region featured: Indonesia / Yogyakarta and Central Java.
ONLINE Q&A with Dag Yngvesson and Koes Yuliadi.
Saturday, March 26, 5:40pm
Banyak Ayam Banyak Rejeki is a hybrid film that documents the growth of critical perspectives in three very different Indonesian women who happen to share the same husband. Made over the course of 11 years in the city of Yogyakarta, the film’s unusually lengthy process compelled its participants to engage with major social and political shifts that radically alter the courses of the narrative and their lives. Drawing on local cinematic wisdom, satire and humor are deployed as “safe” ways to address rapidly expanding Islamic conservatism and vigilantism and the complex effects of social media on individual agency.
Self-distributed by 5 Monkeys & A Duck | Contact: dag.yngvesson@nottingham.edu.my
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