Q&A chat session on Mar 25, 2021 | Center for East Asian & Pacific Studies

The Silence A film by Park Soonam.
2017. Japan / Korea. 117 minutes.
Country/region featured: Japan / Korea

Q&A chat session with Park Soonam, Maeui Park, and Shota Ogawa (translator).
Thu, 03/25/2021 - 10:00a EST

The Silence narrates the 30 years’ struggle of fifteen “comfort women”—former sex slaves by the Imperial Japanese Army during WWII—for recognition and reparation. It is a vivid and down-to-earth testimony of the comfort women history, in a documentary which took Director Park 20 years to make in Japan. This film is the record of struggles carried on by the victims of comfort women, including Ms. Lee Oksun who reveals a deep resentment endured for half a century.

Distributed by Ariran Production.
https://nutigafu.wixsite.com/park-soonam/english

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Three Films from the Mingei Film Archive
Directed by Marty Gross.
2020. Canada. 53 minutes.
Country/region featured: Korea, Okinawa, Japan

Q&A chat session with Marty Gross.
Thu, 03/25/2021 - 10:30a EST

As an introduction to the Mingei Film Archive, this film includes restored and enhanced versions of, "Potters from ‘In the Land of the Morning Calm’”, “Mingei Potters of Okinawa”and “Onda 1954”.

Films from the Mingei Film Archive
The Mingei Film Archive is building the definitive audio-visual media resource on the Mingei pottery-making traditions for craftspeople, collectors, students, historians and the general public. Through restored film and new commentary from scholars and makers, the archive charts the development of the core ideas of the Mingei Movement, and traces its roots in Japanese Buddhist philosophy.

Distributed by Marty Gross Films.
mingeifilm.martygrossfilms.com

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Bernard Leach Films Japanese Puppetry, 1934
Directed by Marty Gross.
2020. Canada. 6:36 minutes.
Country/region featured: Japan

Q&A chat session with Marty Gross.
Thu, 03/25/2021 - 10:30a EST

British potter Bernard Leach made 16mm films during his travels in Japan and Korea in 1934-35. In this short film, Leach is clearly fascinated by the special “Kuruma Ningyo” (cart-doll performance) practiced in Hachioji, a suburb of Tokyo. Commentary by puppeteer Nishikawa Koryu V was recorded at his rehearsal studio and added to the film.

Distributed by Marty Gross Films.
mingeifilm.martygrossfilms.com

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Bernard Leach Films Papermaking in Japan, 1934 (Version One)
Directed by Marty Gross.
2020. Canada. 6:19 minutes.
Country/region featured: Japan

Q&A chat session with Marty Gross.
Thu, 03/25/2021 - 10:30a EST

In this short film Bernard Leach follows the papermaking processes at the workshop of renowned papermaker Abe Eishiro, one of the early members of the Mingei movement. The entire process of making Japanese washi in Yakumo Village, Shimane Prefecture, is shown. The voice of Abe Shinichiro, grandson of the Eishiro was recorded as commentary.

Distributed by Marty Gross Films.
mingeifilm.martygrossfilms.com

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A Woman Who Paints Thangkas
Directed and produced by Ming Xue.
2019. United States / China. 25 minutes.
Country/region featured: Qinghai, China

Q&A chat session with Ming Xue.
Thu, 03/25/2021 - 11:00a EST

Rebgong (Qinghai province, China) is well-known for its Tibetan Buddhist thangka art for centuries. However, Tibetan women were not allowed to learn or to paint thangkas until recent years. Lutso is one of the first Tibetan women who received systematic training in thangka painting, and is the only female painter in the region who operates a thangka studio of her own. She is also a mother, a wife, and the oldest daughter in the family. The film captures Lutso's unique life as a thangka painter, who has a career to develop and a family to support.

Distributed by the filmmaker.
Contact: echoxuepku@gmail.com

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Mountain Medicines: The Cultural Context of Chinese Wild Animal and Herbal Healing Materia Medica
A film by Gary Seaman and Joe Juanyao Zheng.
2020. United States. 51 minutes.
Country/region featured: Taiwan

Q&A chat session with Gary Seaman and Joe Juanyao Zheng.
Thu, 03/25/2021 - 2:00p EST

Chinese herbal medicines have a long and venerated history. We follow the forays of a "barefoot doctor" to the mountains to collect herbs in central Taiwan, and observe his religious practices to cure his patients using these herbal medicines as well as summoning spiritual forces. This film reveals the cultural and religious context of Chinese medicines --the intertwined dimensions of physical and spiritual energy that relate to human fate.

Distributed by the Ethnographics Media, LLC.
Contact: seaman@usc.edu; juanyaoz@usc.edu

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Jeronimo
A film by Joseph Juhn.
2019. Cuba / South Korea / United States. 93 minutes.
Country/region featured: Cuba, Asia, United States, Canada

Q&A chat session with Joseph Juhn.
Thu, 03/25/2021 - 2:30p EST

Born in 1926 to Korean indentured servant parents in Cuba, Jeronimo Lim becomes the first Korean to enroll in university in the same school and year as Fidel Castro. Jeronimo joins the Cuban revolution and later becomes a Vice Minister in the Castro government, crossing paths with Fidel and Che Guevara. However, after being disillusioned with the unfulfilled promises of communism, and after visiting his homeland, Korea, in 1995, Jeronimo becomes a changed man and dedicates the remaining years reconnecting to his Korean roots and singlehandedly rebuilding the Korean community in Cuba.

Distributed by Diaspora Film Production (USA) / Connect Pictures (Korea).
http://www.jeronimothemovie.com/

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Singing A Great Dream: The Revolutionary Songs and Life of Khusiram Pakhrin
A film by Anna Stirr and Bhakta Syangtan.
2019. Nepal / United States. 39 minutes.
Country/region featured: Nepal

Q&A chat session with Anna Stirr.
Thu, 03/25/2021 - 4:30p EST

People's singer, songwriter, and Maoist cultural leader Khusiram Pakhrin's musical journey through nearly 4 decades of political movements and revolution in Nepal. This is the first film about Nepal's revolutionary singer-songwriter Khusiram Pakhrin, and so far the only film that focuses on the songs of Nepal's Maoist movement. From the 1980s through 2006, their live performances were often banned and rarely photographed or recorded; hence we rely on Khusiram Pakhrin and his fellow performers for oral history and rare photos and footage of underground performances.

Distributed by the filmmaker.
www.singingagreatdream.com

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Finding Yingying
A film by Jiayan "Jenny" Shi.
2020. United States. 98 minutes.
Country/region featured: United States, China

Q&A chat session with Jiayan "Jenny" Shi, producer Diane Quon and co-producer Shilin Sun.
Thu, 03/25/2021 - 5:00p EST

After a young Chinese student goes missing on a university campus, her family travels to the U.S. for the first time. While unraveling the mystery of her disappearance, they discover how much her life has touched others.

Yingying Zhang, a 26-year-old Chinese student, comes to the U.S. to study. In her detailed and beautiful diaries, the aspiring young scientist and teacher is full of optimism, hoping to also be married and a mother someday. Within weeks of her arrival, Yingying disappears from the campus. Through exclusive access to Yingying’s family and boyfriend, Finding Yingying closely follows their journey as they search to unravel the mystery of her disappearance and seek justice for their daughter while navigating a strange, foreign country. But most of all, “Finding Yingying”is the story of who Yingying was: a talented young woman loved by her family and friends.

Distributed by the Kartemquin Films.
https://kartemquin.com/
https://www.findingyingying.com/

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