$3 donation appreciated, Tuesdays, 7:30pm in the Little Theatre (Ayres 106)
Director: Sarah Pike, 898-6341, spike@csuchico.edu

September | October | November | December | January | February | March

SEP. 6

Chinatown (1974, USA) 131 min.
Directed by Roman Polanski.
Introduced by Jason Tannen, Art & Art History, University Art Gallery*

Chinatown has been called one of the greatest films ever made. It was nominated for eleven Academy Awards, winning in the category of Best Original Screenplay and stars Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway and John Huston. A complex, character-driven story, Chinatown begins with an investigation of infidelity, which leads to an intricate narrative of power, corruption and murder. Set in Los Angeles in 1937, it was inspired by the California Water Wars, the historical disputes over land and water rights that raged in southern California during the 1910s and 1920s.

SEP. 13

On the Bowery (USA, 1957) 65 min.
Directed by Lionel Rogosin.
Introduced by Sarah Pike, Religious Studies and Humanities Center.

The Oscar-nominated On the Bowery, which chronicles three days on New York City's skid row, On the Bowery, is an American masterpiece blending documentary and fiction. It is among the most important films from the post-war American independent scene.

SEP. 20

Shower (Xizao) (1999, China) 92 min.
Directed by Zhang Yang.
Introduced by Sandra Collins, History.*

Shower reveals that even in China it is hard to go home again. The tensions between the city of New China (Shezhen) and the country of old China, father (Liu) and son (Da Ming), the brother who left (Da Ming) and the brother who stayed home (Er ming) erupt to underscore the most significant tension in life: the pursuit of inner happiness or outer material wealth. The film is a funny and endearing portrayal of the changes in the daily lives of today's China wrought by a rising, New China. The characters are quirky and individualistic and counter the common American stereotypes of all Chinese being the same. The same issues that plague our modern life in Chico, however, find parallels in the family owned communal showers in rural China.

SEP. 27

The Last Emperor (Italy, 1987) 160 min.

Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci.

Introduced by Fulvio Orsitto, Foreign Languages.*

About the life of Pu Yi, the last Emperor of China, whose autobiography was the basis for the screenplay written by Mark Peploe and Bernardo Bertolucci. The film was nominated for nine Oscars in 1987 and won all nine (including the Best Picture Oscar). It was shot on location in China, the first Western production allowed to film in Beijing's Forbidden City. The story covers six decades, from Pu Yi's 1908 coronation as the last monarch of China to his 1960s life as a civilian. The film is visually stunning and structured through flashback memories as Pu Yi comes to grips with his position under Communism.

OCT. 18

Shanghai Noon (2000, USA) 110 min.

Directed by Tom Dey.

Introduced by Laura Nice, Humanities Program.*

This film stars Owen Wilson (as Roy O'Bannon) and Jackie Chan (as Chon Wang), Shanghai Noon is a slapstick exploration of the cultural exchanges between East and West set in 19th Century Nevada. Reveling in the influences of earlier kung fu action films and spaghetti westerns, Shanghai Noon pairs Wilson's relaxed outlaw with Chan's imperial guard for a plot infused with comic physicality. As A. O. Scott noted in a New York Times review "Shanghai Noon is, in classic western tradition, a celebration of male bonding, unabashedly juvenile, boyishly risque and disarmingly sweet."

OCT. 5

If You Are the One (Fei Cheng Wu Rao—"if not sincere, do not disturb") (2008, China) 130 min.

Directed by Xiaogang Feng.

Introduced by Sandra Collins, History.*

Want to know what dating in modern China is like? If You Are the One was a hugely popular film in China, with a box office opening of a reported US$53.7 million during the Chinese New Year 2008. The premise of the film is based on the fact that most young Chinese are struggling not only with professional success but also personal relationships. If You Are the One is an ironic observational comedy about the plight of young Chinese in the dating game. The main characters, Xiaoxiao (Shu Qi), a stewardess, and Qinfen (Ge You), a wildly successful inventor, slowly fall in love. Based on the successful 1998 Taiwanese film, The Personal, the film follows the couple in various Asian locales conducive to romance (and tourism): Beijing and Hangzhou in China, and Hokkaido in Japan. Come see what Chinese consider to be a good date film, so much so that it led to If You Are the One 2 in 2010.

NOV. 1

The Missing Star (La stella che non c'è) (Italy, 2006) 104 min.

Directed by Gianni Amelio.

Introduced by Fulvio Orsitto, Foreign Languages and Literatures*

One man's work ethic and sense of personal responsibility send him on a great journey in this drama from filmmaker Gianni Amelio. The protagonist Vincenzo has devoted most of his life to working in a steel mill, where he looks after the machines and sees that they're in good repair. One day, he gets the news that the mill is going out of business and the equipment is being sold. Vincenzo is told that one of those machines (now in a Chinese factory) has a defect that led to the death of one of his co-workers years before. Vincenzo is convinced that if he doesn't do some preventative maintenance on the equipment, another worker could be killed. Determined to prevent a needless fatality, he flies to China and sets out to find the faulty machine, with the help of Liu Hua, a young woman serving as his interpreter. The movie was screened in competition as part of the 2006 Venice Film Festival.

NOV. 8

Everyday Sunshine: The Story of Fishbone (2010, USA) 107 mins.
Directed by Lev Anderson and Chris Metzler.

Followed by Q&A with the directors and other special guests.

Everyday Sunshine is a documentary about the band Fishbone, musical pioneers who have been rocking on the margins of pop culture for the past 25 years. From the streets of South Central-Los Angeles and the competitive Hollywood music scene of the 1980's, the band rose to prominence, only to fall apart when on the verge of "making it."

Laurence Fishburne narrates Everyday Sunshine, an entertaining cinematic journey into the personal lives of this unique Black rock band, an untold story of fiercely individual artists in their quest to reclaim their musical legacy while debunking the myths of young Black men from urban America. Highlighting the parallel journeys of a band and their city, Everyday Sunshine explores the personal and cultural forces that gave rise to California's legendary Black punk sons that continue to defy categories and expectations.

At the heart of Fishbone's story is lead singer Angelo Moore and bassist Norwood Fisher who show how they keep the band rolling, out of pride, desperation and love for their art. To overcome money woes, family strife, and the strain of being aging Punk rockers on the road, Norwood and Angelo are challenged to re-invent themselves in the face of dysfunction and ghosts from a painful past.

NOV. 15

The Sun Also Rises (China, 2007) 116 mins. Mandarin w/English subtitles.

Directed by Jiang Wen.

Introduced by Sandra Collins, History.*

Devils on the Doorstep director Jiang Wen directs himself as well as Joan Chen and a cast of other stellar actors in this magical adaptation of Ye Mi's novel, Velvet.

The unspoken specters of Chairman Mao and the Cultural Revolution haunt this film, which is set in 1976 China. Interlocking four seemingly separate stories, Wen dances around these ghosts as the narrative arcs of the separate stories become more fantastical. In Story One, a madwoman dreams of embroidered shoes in a rural village in Eastern China as her son surrounds her with warmth, humor and bittersweet care. In Story Two, the frenzied sexuality of women on a college campus in Southern China is juxtaposed against the irrational mob mentality of the Cultural Revolution. In Story Three the earlier two narratives are connected by Jian's character traveling from Southern China to rural Eastern China, only to confront a mysterious memory place. In the final story, the repressed ghosts—the violence and madness of the Cultural Revolution—surreally pull the stories together across time and space. This is a visual and poetic inflection of magical realism in New China that attempts to address the memory of the unaddressed historical legacy of Mao's Cultural Revolution through surreal, postmodern cinema. The film invites viewers to reflect upon the silent past of Mao's China in today's New China by contrasting the landscapes between Southern China's lush terraces of Yunnan and Eastern China's harsh desolation of the Gobi Desert. The stark contrasts in the landscape of China not only hold the contradictions of geography but also of memory and history. This film may challenge western viewers as the film combines eastern traditions of karma, art and non-teleological narratives with western notions of magical realism to invent a new idiom of cinematic storytelling that is simply stunning.

NOV. 29

Three Times (Taiwan, 2005) 120 mins. Directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien. Introduced by Wai-hung Wong, Philosophy*

Three Times (Zuì hao de shí guang; literally means "Best of Times") features three chronologically separate stories of love between May and Chen, set in 1911, 1966 and 2005, using the same lead actors, Shu Qi and Chang Chen. In 1966, "A Time for Love," a soldier searches for a young woman he met one afternoon playing pool; "A Time for Freedom," set in a bordello in 1911, revolves around a singer's longing to escape her surroundings; in 2005 in Taipei, "A Time for Youth" dramatizes a triangle in which a singer has an affair with a photographer while her partner suffers. The film was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival and received positive reviews.

DEC. 6

House of Sand (Casa de Areia) (2005, Brazil) 115 min.
Directed by Andrucha Waddington.
Introduced by Quirino de Brito, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures.

The drama The House of Sand is about personal discovery, adaptation, and change. When Áurea (Fernanda Torres) and her mother (Dona Maria), performed by Fernanda Montenegro (Central Station), are confronted with desolation and detachment in the wilds of Northern Brazil (state of Maranhão), pregnant Áurea yearns for life in the city. She craves the pace, space and "frills" of modernity as she is forced to adjust to the life style of runaway slaves. This kind of personal entrapment causes Áurea to deepen her sense that this place has the remoteness of spaces, among 'dunes' of memories left behind. Despite her heightened sense of despair, Áurea quickly finds out that she has to face the challenges of her day-to-day existence... no matter what!

JAN. 31

Chan Is Missing (USA, 1982) 80 min.

Directed by Wayne Wang.

Introduced by Jason Tannen, Art and Art History.*

Two cabbies search San Francisco's Chinatown for a mysterious character who has disappeared with their $4000. Their quest leads them on a humorous, if mundane, journey that illuminates the many problems experienced by Chinese-Americans trying to assimilate into contemporary American society. This film won the Independent / Experimental Film and Video Award at the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards in 1982. In 1995, Chan Is Missing was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.

FEB. 7

Not One Less (China 1999) 106 minutes.

Directed by Zhang Yimou.

Introduced by Sandra Collins, History.*

Not One Less tells the story of thirteen-year-old Wei Minzhi who lives in Shuiquan village and has been asked to substitute for the village's only teacher while he is away on family business. The teacher leaves one stick of chalk for each day and promises her an extra 10 yuan if there's not one less student when he returns. Within days, poverty forces the class troublemaker, Zhang Huike, to leave for the city to work. Minzhi, possessed of a stubborn streak, determines to bring him back. She hitches to Jiangjiakou City and begins her search. The boy, meanwhile, is there, lost and begging for food. Minzhi's stubbornness may be Huike’s and the village school's salvation. Internationally, the film was generally well-received, but it also attracted criticism for its ostensibly political message; foreign critics are divided on whether the film should be read as praising or criticizing the Chinese government. The film won the Venice Film Festival's Golden Lion and several other awards.

FEB 14

Behind the Sun (Abril Despedaçado) (Brazil 2001) 92 min.

Directed by Walter Salles.

Introduced by Quirino de Brito, Foreign Languages and Literatures.

Behind the Sun depicts a story of fate, fear and destiny that might have surged anywhere in the worldly geographies of a backland.  It just happened that this cinematographic portrait of human excess and hope is set against the background of rural Brazil. It is 1910, and two families are locked in a bloody, generations-old feud. The rule of the game:  An eye-for-an eye. The consequence: death seals the future, freezes the present. But, despite Tonho’s (Rodrigo Santoro) torturous destiny, serendipitous circumstances in the deep Brazil backlands will change his future forever as he starts to rebel against the cycle of violent acts. Based on a novel by award winning Albanian author Ismail Kandare, Behind the Sun, is a superb testimony to the power of the past over our frail present.

FEB. 21

Last Train Home (China 2009) 85 min.

Directed by Lixin Fan.

Introduced by Jason Clower, Religious Studies.*

Every spring, China’s cities are plunged into chaos as a tidal wave of humanity attempts to return home by train for the Chinese New Year. The wave is made up of millions of migrant factory workers. The homes they seek are the rural villages and families they left behind to seek work in booming coastal cities. It is an epic spectacle that tells us much about China, a country discarding traditional ways as it hurtles towards modernity and global economic dominance. Last Train Home draws us into the fractured lives of a single migrant family. Sixteen years ago, the Zhangs abandoned their young children to find work in the city, consoled by the hope that their wages would lift their children into a better life. But in a bitter irony, the Zhangs’ hopes for the future are undone by their very absence. Qin, the child they left behind, has grown into adolescence crippled by a sense of abandonment. In an act of teenage rebellion, she drops out of school. She too will become a migrant worker. The decision is a heartbreaking blow for the parents. Last Train Home follows the Zhangs’ attempts to change their daughter’s course and repair their ruptured family. Intimate and candid, the film paints a human portrait of the dramatic changes sweeping China.

FEB. 28

Beijing Bicycle (China, Tawain, France 2001) 113 min.

Directed by Xiaoshuai Wang.

Introduced by Fulvio Orsitto, Foreign Languages and Literature.*

Guei is a seventeen-year-old country boy who came to Beijing to make a living. Guei finds employment with a courier company, which assigns brand-new bicycles for use in deliveries. The company manager announces to the couriers that since the bicycles do not yet belong to them, they will only earn twenty percent of the commission. But once they have made enough deliveries to earn the bicycles, their share will be raised to fifty percent. Within two months Guei has made enough to earn his bicycle. However, on the day that Guei is due to take over the ownership, the bicycle is stolen. At the other end of the city, Jian is a seventeen-year-old schoolboy who longs for a bicycle of his own so he can ride with Xiao, the girl he fancies. His hopes are dashed when his father delays buying a bicycle for him yet again so that his younger stepsister Rong Rong can go to a prestigious school. This frustrates Jian, who steals some money from his family and pays 500 yuan to a second-hand dealer for a bicycle—the one that used to belong to Guei. Meanwhile, the stubborn Guei embarks on a search for his bicycle.

MAR. 6

Vincent Who? (USA 2009) 40 minutes.

Directed by Tony Lam. Written and Produced by Curtis Chin.

Special screening with visiting director.*

In 1982, at the height of anti-Japanese sentiments, Vincent Chin was murdered in Detroit by two white autoworkers who said, "it's because of you mother** that we're out of work." When the judged fined the killers a mere $3,000 and three years probation, Asian Americans around the country galvanized for the first time to form a real community and movement. This documentary features interviews with the key players at the time, as well as a whole new generation of activists. Vincent Who? asks how far Asian Americans have come since then and how far they have yet to go. Curtis Chin is an award-winning writer and producer who has worked for ABC, NBC, Fox, the Disney Channel. As a community activist, he co-founded the Asian American Writers Workshop and Asian Pacific Americans for Progress. In 2008, he served on Barack Obama's Asian American Leadership Council where he participated in helping the campaign reach out to the AAPI community. He has appeared on MSNBC, CNN, NPR, Newsweek and other media outlets.

MAR.13

The Rising Tide (2008).

Directed by Robert Adanto.

Special screening and an evening with the director.*

Robert Adanto's debut feature-length documentary The Rising Tide, explores China’s meteoric march towards the future via the works of some of the Middle Kingdom's most talented photographers and video artists. Shot in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen in the summer of 2006, this unflinching and incisive study captures the confusion and ambiguity that characterize the new China. Richard Vine, Senior Editor, Art In America and author of New China, New Art wrote, "If you want a living sense of China’s contemporary art scene—and the artists who are shaking it up—check out Robert Adanto’s The Rising Tide. It reveals some of the brightest and best new talents, capturing their works, their words, and their faces amid a swiftly changing environment."  The film has been screened at national and international venues, including The Hammer Museum, The Smithsonian Institution's Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington DC, The National Center for Contemporary Art in Moscow, The Worcester Art Museum, and The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum in Miami.

MAR. 27

Shanghai Express (USA 1932) 80 min.

Directed by Josef von Sternberg.

Introduced by Peter Hogue, Emeritus, English.*

 In 1931, China is embroiled in a civil war. Friends of British Captain Donald "Doc" Harvey envy him because the fabulously notorious Shanghai Lily is a fellow passenger on the express train from Beijing to Shanghai. When the name means nothing to him, they inform him that she is a "coaster" or "woman who lives by her wits along the China coast"—in other words, a courtesan. On the journey, Harvey encounters his former lover, Magdalen (Marlene Dietrich). Five years earlier, she had played a trick on Harvey to gauge his love for her, but it backfired and he left her. She frankly informs him that, in the interim, "It took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily." Shanghai Express won the Oscar for Best Cinematography in 1932.

*The Humanities Center's theme for this year is "China and the West."