NORTE, THE END OF HISTORY

11:00 a.m. Bijou Art Cinemas

Tickets: $6 students/seniors, $8 general public

In the northern Philippine province of Luzon, a law-school dropout commits a horrific double murder; a gentle family man takes the fall and receives a life sentence, leaving behind a wife and two kids. At their best, Lav Diaz’s marathon movies reveal just how much other films leave out. In his devastating twelfth feature (at four-plus hours, one of his shortest), the broad canvas accommodates both the irreducible facts of individual experience and the cosmic sweep of time and space. A careful rethinking of Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment shot in blazing color, this tour de force offers a masterful recapitulation of Diaz’s longstanding obsessions: cultural memory, national guilt, and the origin of evil. The wounds and defeats of Filipino history loom large in each of Diaz’s films. Fabian, Norte‘s tortured anti-hero (superbly played by Sid Lucero), may well be his most indelible creation: a haunting embodiment of the dead ends of ideology. James Quandt of Artforum proclaimed, “Lav Diaz’s Dostoyevskian mini-epic—at four hours, a mere sip for this hitherto-oceanic filmmaker—may prove the greatest work of the Philippine New Wave.”

MASTERS OF CHINESE MARTIAL ARTS

12:30 -3:20 p.m. Gerlinger Gym on the University of Oregon campus

Free

Join the UO Confucius Institute and UO Wushu Club as they host a series of performances by extraordinary practitioners of wushu, the Chinese martial arts sport, from the West Coast. The program will be highlighted by special performances by visiting masters Hu Jianqiang, the highest-ranking Wushu master in the West, and Zong Jianmei, special guests from the Shaolin Wushu Center in Los Angeles.

12:30 pm	Refreshments
1:00 pm	Welcome
1: 05 pm	UO Wushu Club
1: 10 pm	Introduction of all participants, performance sections and styles
1: 20 pm	Performance: 5 minutes by Master Hu Jianqiang Performance: 5 minutes by Portland Club
1:35 pm	Performance of Master Liang
1:40 pm	Performance by Master Liang’s disciples
1:50 pm	BREAK—refreshments, outside stands with info
2:00 pm	Screening of clips from Master Hu’s appearances in classic martial arts films
2:10 pm	Performance by Master Hu (following the movements of the film clips)
2:25 pm	Performance Master Zong Jian-mei
2:35 pm	Performance Portland Wushu Club
2:40 pm	Final group performance UO Wushu Club
2:50 pm	Open floor for practice by audience members with Masters

 

A RIVER BETWEEN US

With Jason Atkinson and Jeff Martin

1:00 p.m. 156 Straub Hall, on the University of Oregon campus

Tickets: $6

A River Between Us tells the story of the longest running and most bitterly disputed water war in the western United States today. The film’s primary focus is the environmental disaster on the Klamath River; however, in this case, the most dangerous toxin polluting the water is 30 years of bad blood between the local farmers, ranchers, Native Tribes, members of the Tea Party, state politicians, and federal government.

A River Between Us examines the complicated history of this conflict: how anger, fear, and distrust have undermined the Klamath’s communities for decades. Balancing the sheer beauty of the river’s surface with its underlying ills of injustice and inequality, the film focuses on the personal stories of a group of individuals who finally chose to put the past behind them and came together to create a historic water rights compromise for the good of all.

Ultimately, A River Between Us isn’t about fish or water rights or even a 40-year water war, it’s about the harm people do to each other, and by extension, the damage people have done to one of this country’s greatest wild rivers. Most importantly, this documentary provides a solution and a call to action to end this generations-old conflict: in order to save a river, you must first heal a people.

UO Law’s Appropriate Dispute Resolution (ADR) Center and Environmental and Natural Resources (ENR) Law Center are joining with Cinema Pacific to host a post-screening discussion with former Oregon legislator and current environmental activist Jason Atkinson and his co-director on A River Between Us, Jeff Martin. Joining them will be ADR Center director Jennifer Reynolds and UO Law Associate Professor Adell Amos.

TAI CHI ZERO

With a Skype dialogue with Daniel Wu

4:00 p.m. Straub Hall 156 on the University of Oregon campus

Tickets: $6

Tai Chi Zero tells the origins of the Chen style of martial arts called t’i chi ch’uan and is the debut of lead actor Jayden Yuan, the 2008 Olympic wushu champion. It is a creation of Daniel Wu and Stephen Fung’s production company, Diversion Pictures, and impressive evidence of their ambition to revitalize the wuxia film genre. Here, they surprisingly and effectively inject steampunk elements into the wuxia brew.

Our hero, Yang, stumbles upon a small mountainous village in which Chen-style kung fu is practiced. However, it is forbidden for the villagers to share these secrets with an outsider. After a particularly tough battle against Yuniang, the beautiful daughter of Master Chen, Yang is more determined than ever to master the art of Tai Chi . . . but he needs the Master’s permission first. Meanwhile, a frightening steam-powered machine arrives at Chen Village, powered by Fang Zijing. Fang has bribed government officials to permit him to build a railway right through the center of the village. Yang decides to join forces with Yuniang to defeat Fang and destroy the monstrous machine—a brave and dangerous act that might just win the hearts of the villagers . . . and the girl.

Noel Murray writes for The A.V. Club that “stylewise is where the movie makes its mark. Director Stephen Fung is making a martial arts movie for the Internet age; the fight sequences have additional videogame-style graphics showing angles of attack, and rather than putting the cast’s names in the opening credits, Fung introduces them whenever they show up in the movie, and adds each actor’s best-known credit next to his or her name.”

BALIKBAYAN #1 (aka MEMORIES OF OVERDEVELOPMENT)

With director Kidlat Tahimik and tasty Filipino refreshments!

6:45 p.m. Bijou Art Cinemas

Tickets: $6 students/seniors, $8 general public

The latest piece by acclaimed Filipino filmmaker Kidlat Tahimik (The Perfumed Nightmare) was 35 years in the making. Winner of the Caligari Prize at the 2015 Berlin International Film Festival, Balikbayan #1 tells the story of Enrique of Malacca, Magellan’s slave and arguably the first person to ever circumnavigate the globe. “In the film, Enrique (played by the director himself) does not appear as the object of European exploitation, but rather as a kind of shrewd cosmopolitan from the Global South. Kidlat Tahimik began working on his film about Enrique in 1979, but for personal reasons never completed it. Not until more than three decades later has he now been able to finish it, almost without a budget—partly thanks to new developments in media technology (some of the new footage was shot with an iPhone)” (Tilman Baumgartel). Giovanni Marchini Camia stated in Filmmaker: “A sui generis historical epic, the film freely mixes genres, integrates a variety of formats, and features a carousel of actors spanning three generations—it may very well be Tahimik’s magnum opus.” Adam Cook raved in Mubi’s Notebook: “such inexplicable and whimsical beauty! Karaoke history lessons, digressions on Filipino art, and the overwhelmingly lovely and warm personality of the film’s director, which is present in every line of narration, every edit, every shot choice!”

Kidlat Tahimik’s visit is supported by a gift by Mark and Joy Gall.