TOUCH OF THE LIGHT

1:00 p.m.    Bijou Art Cinemas 

Rong-ji Chang’s Touch of The Light offers a partially fictionalized depiction of the rise of its star and subject, Yu-Siang Huang, a precocious blind pianist. Spurred by encouragement from his supportive mother, Huang journeys from his small Taiwanese village to the nation’s capital after he is offered placement in the selective Taipei School of Music. The young prodigy navigates an unfamiliar world while surmounting the ridicule of his peers. A blossoming romance between Huang and a young dancer most certainly helps the young pianist adapt to his new world.

Director Rong-ji Chang directs an electric young cast that brings a wonderfully idiosyncratic energy to Touch of the Light. However, the most striking aspect of the film is the score provided by Huang. His play perfectly accompanies the film’s emotional fluctuations, adding a layer of visceral depth uncommon to this type of work. Touch of the Light is significantly bolstered by what Variety’s Richard Kuipers call Huang’s “immensely likable and inspiring” performance. The film was extremely well received by Taiwanese audiences and would be honored as the country’s official submission to the 2012 Oscars. Chang’s direction ensures that Touch of the Light remains lighthearted and thoroughly entertaining. But there is no doubt that Huang is the film’s true conductor.

ART FOR ENDANGERED SPECIES

2:00 p.m.   Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art   Free

The wildlife-inspired art of media and performance artists Vanessa Renwick and Deke Weaver will be discussed by the artists, joined by environmental studies scholar Ted Toadvine (head of UO Philosophy department) and artist Carla Bengtson (UO Department of Art). Renwick’s video installations Hunting Requires Optimism and Medusa Smack are on display April 25–June 29 in the Schnitzer Museum. Her three-screen film and live music performance Hope and Prey, featuring powerful footage of wolves in the wild, will be presented the night before this panel, preceded by Deke Weaver’s multimedia performance Wolf. The artists will present additional examples of their work and discuss with Toadvine and Bengtson the artistic and environmental concerns that inform their creative efforts.

THE LIFEGUARD

Featuring a Skype dialogue with director Maite Alberdi

4:00 p.m.    Bijou Art Cinemas

The Lifeguard chronicles the tenure of a peculiar lifeguard with an unfortunate aversion to water. Despite this limitation, the tanned, dreadlocked Mauricio performs his duties with an admirable resolve that seems out of place on the Chilean coast. He may look like a chilled-out surfer dude, but he is anything but. He stringently enforces every rule of the beach, but when someone needs saving, all he can do is watch. Mauricio is not popular with the young male teens who like to test his authority, nor with his rival, Jean Pierre, whose every infraction Mauricio reports.

Director Maite Alberdi is part of a lively community of young, independent Chilean documentary filmmakers, many of whom are women. Early on she developed a distinct style as filmmaker, portraying intimate worlds in an unobtrusive manner. Her short fictional film ‘Las Peluqueras’ (The Hairdressers) (2007) was awarded on TVE with the Casa de America prize for the best Latin American short film.  In The Lifeguard, she provides no commentary or fanciful editing in illustrating the life of Maurcio. Her film is composed entirely of elegantly radiant cinematography and subtle cuts that reveal the complicated social system on the Chilean beach. Alberdi allows viewers to decipher the relationships and consider, if they wish, larger allegorical implications of the lifeguards’ displays of authority and masculinity.

THE RAW AND THE COOKED: A CULINARY JOURNEY THROUGH TAIWAN

With tasty treats from Taiwan!

6:45 p.m.    Bijou Art Cinemas

German filmmaker Monika Treut renders the coastal Asian state of Taiwan a scintillating culinary oasis in her third directorial effort set on the island. The Raw and The Cooked artfully documents the pervasive passion for cuisine on the island of 22 million. In the island’s capital, Taipei, we visit a traditional Taiwanese restaurant, a legendary dim-sum palace, and one of the city’s lively night markets. Next, we encounter the hearty cuisine of the Hakka, Taiwan’s largest ethnic community; we’re introduced to the pure and delicious seafood specialties of the Ami indigenous tribe; and we get a glimpse of the Buddhist influences on Taiwanese cuisine. Finally, we are invited to a banquet by one of the island’s most creative chefs. Combining traditional cuisine and best organic ingredients, he weaves a culinary magic to create spectacular and novel dishes.

At first seemingly just a glowing testament to the nation’s passion, the film delves deeper into the social issues surrounding food production. Director Monika Treut had previously made provocative films on issues of gender, feminism and sexuality. It is no wonder, then, that there is substantive sustenance mixed in with the light deliciousness of Raw and The Cooked, and viewers will come away with greater knowledge about ethnic and environmental tensions in Taiwan. We witness, for example, the efforts of Taiwan’s young environmental movement to resist the rapid pace of urbanisation, which is destroying much of the island’s beautiful countryside. Your mind will be provoked, but the film’s radiantly beautiful visuals and jaw-droppingly delectable dishes will ravish your other senses.

Cosponsored with the Taiwanese Association of Eugene, who will provide tasty Taiwanese treats for an inevitably hungry crowd.

DOCUMENTARY FILM AS PROCESS: IN HONOR OF JAMES BLUE

A talk by David MacDougall

9:00 a.m. George S. Turnbull Center, 70 NW Couch St., Portland Free

In this talk, MacDougall will focus on the distinction between filmmaking conceived as a form of publication and filmmaking as an exploratory process. Referring to his experiences of filming at an elite boarding school in India, he will discuss some of the shifts that can occur in both the form and underlying meanings of such projects. Although recent debates among anthropologists and theoreticians have praised drawing over filming, more crucial differences are to be found in the engaged practice of the filmmaker and the contrasting, expressive potential of words and images.

Cosponsored with the UO School of Journalism and Communication’s “What is Documentary?” Conference.

MUSICAL COMPOSITION AND EXPERIMENTAL DIGITAL CINEMA

A talk by Wen-shing Ho

1:30 p.m. Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art Lecture Room Free

Wen-shing Ho will discuss how her work aims to expand existing cinematic expression by applying musical notation, tonal systems, and the forms and structures of musical composition techniques to the conception and direction of digital cinema. She will specically address how her application of Maurice Ravel and Tori Takemitsu’s composition has pushed the boundaries of conventional cinematic storytelling, rhythm and mise-en-scene. Examples are offered from her experimental films Water, Thief, and Takao Dancer.

Cosponsored with UO Confucius Institute and EALL.

ON MY CAREER AS A COMICS ARTIST

A talk by Jung Henin

2:30 p.m. Proctor 41, Knight Library Free

Graphic novelist Jung, who will be presenting his debut animated feature Approved for Adoption at Cinema Pacific, will speak in this special session on his acclaimed work in comics. Jung is quite famous in Europe for his series Yasuda, La Jeune Fille et le Vent, and Kwaidan. He will discuss why he originally became a graphic novelist, how his career has developed, and what he has learned from the experience of adapting his novel to film. Jung will show original artworks on paper and talk about all aspects of production, from the development of the concept, script, storyboard, drawings, and coloring, all the way through navigating relationships with publishers.

Cosponsored with the UO Comics and Cartoon Studies.

JAMES BLUE’S DOCUMENTARY LEGACY

with Christina Kovac, Daniel Miller, Gerald O’Grady, and Suzanne Clark

5:30 p.m.–7:00 p.m. George S. Turnbull Center, 70 NW Couch St., Portland Free

This panel will celebrate the extraordinary archive of James Blue’s work that is now joining the permanent collections at the University of Oregon Libraries. Daniel Miller will comment upon James Blue’s powerfully cinematic approach to documentary in his exemplary film, The March, illustrated with some clips from his current film about the “Anniversary of The March” and the arrival of the Blue Archives in Oregon. Christina Kovac will discuss the restoration of Blue’s The March for the National Archives and Gerald O’Grady, who collected and maintained the collection through the years, will speak about the archive’s invaluable recordings of Blue’s interviews with documentary legends.

FRINGE FESTIVAL

6:00 p.m.–8:00 p.m. Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art Free

See video remixes and play an interactive Kinect game created by local media artists riffing on the Taiwanese classic film, Brother Wang and Brother Liu Tour Taiwan. Taiwanese music and dance will also be performed in the JSMA Café, side-by-side with the museum’s public opening reception for its spring exhibitions. Also on view: special preview of the upcoming Godzilla Smash 3 mobile game. Representatives of Eugene-based Pipeworks and Oregon Story Board will allow players to sample the game, and they will give a special 30-minute presentation on the game’s development at 7:30 p.m. Cosponsored with Oregon Film, Oregon Story Board and the Taiwanese Association of Eugene.

APPROVED FOR ADOPTION

Screening and discussion with codirector Jung

6:45 p.m. Bijou Art Cinemas

The Korean War left thousands of young refugees scattered across Europe and the United States. In this vibrant, animated documentary, Jung Henin, the film’s co-director and subject, retells his experience as a South Korean adoptee growing up in Belgium. The film spans the period from an animated 1970s Belgium to present day Korea, where a live-action Henin reconciles with his past.

Now an accomplished artist, Jung was far from disciplined growing up. What New York Times critic Nicolas Rapold describes as a “rambunctious childhood” at times borders on horrifying. Jung’s retelling of the precipitous follies of his youth is undoubtedly an act of catharsis. His was no ordinary adolescent identity crisis. There are palpable undertones of neglect and a young Jung seems distantly aware that he may have been adopted more as chic commodity than actual child. Jung’s adoptive parents often seem more concerned with their own reputation than his well being. The film moves through a variety of tones, as the darkness of his youth is often trumped by a lighter, adult sensibility. Jung acknowledges the shortcomings and, perhaps, misguided intentions of his adoptive family, but does so with midlife serenity. This is not a story of a boy lost to circumstance, but of a man who managed to elude his demons through artistry and creative expression. That expression culminates, fittingly, in a film that leaves viewers with a bit of Jung’s hard fought serenity.

Approved for Adoption offers a level, almost meditative perspective on an embittered childhood that will resonate with many viewers, particularly those who have raised or been adoptees. Cosponsored with Holt International, UO Comics and Cartoon Studies, and Unifrance.

TRIBUTE TO JAMES BLUE: THE MARCH AND A FEW NOTES ON OUR FOOD PROBLEM

With special guests Richard Blue, Gerald O’Grady, Christina Kovac, and Gill Dennis

8:00 p.m. Whitsell Auditorium, Portland Art Museum

Fifty years ago, Portland-raised director James Blue led a team of fourteen sound and cameramen in documenting the landmark civil rights event, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where Martin Luther King delivered his legendary “I Have a Dream” speech. Blue wrote and narrated the script and edited the footage, producing, in the words of preservation specialist Christina Kovac of the National Archives, “a visually stunning, moving, and arresting documentary of the hope, determination, and camaraderie embodied by the demonstration.” The March won acclaim at many international film festivals, including Bilbao and Venice, and was named to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 2008.

Blue served as director, scriptwriter, narrator, and editor of A Few Notes on Our Food Problem, a visionary essay film that looks at the green revolution and the development of agricultural production on three continents. The documentary was shot in Taiwan, India, Uganda, and Brazil, and was nominated for an Academy Award in 1968.

Following the two half-hour films, Blue’s colleague, Gerald O’Grady, who recruited Blue to Houston to run the Rice Media Center and then to Buffalo to join his Department of Media Study, will moderate a discussion. Joining O’Grady will be James Blue’s brother, Richard Blue, his co-screenwriter on A Few Notes, Gill Dennis, and the restorer of his films made for the U.S. Government, Christina Kovac.

Cosponsored with the UO School of Journalism and Communication’s “What is Documentary?” Conference and the Northwest Film Center.

BIG IN JAPAN

With director John Jeffcoat and Tennis Pro (performing live!)

9:15 p.m. Bijou Art Cinemas

VILLA: A LIVE STAGED READING

3:30 p.m.  Bijou Art Cinemas  FREE

Three Portland actors will perform a live staged reading of Guillermo Calderón’s Villa, in which three young women debate the future of the site of a former villa turned into a torture barracks by the military dictatorship. Originally performed inside the infamous Villa Grimaldi, this spare, intense play by one of Chilean theatre’s fiercest new literary voices grapples with the legacy of atrocity. Margaret Gray writes in the Los Angeles Times: “Calderón’s stark lyricism and dreamlike imagery recall the magical realism of Nabokov (Invitation to a Beheading). At the same time he keeps stripping away his own metaphors, fighting against the lure of lyricism, and it becomes clear that the women’s struggle is also his own: how to write a play about the villa? Will a work of theater, however nobly intentioned, diminish the pain of the victims?”

How should we commemorate past atrocity?
Join us for a staged reading (in English translation) of Guillermo Calderón’s acclaimed one-act play in which three young women debate the future of the site of a former villa turned into a torture barracks by the military dictatorship. Originally performed inside the infamous Villa Grimaldi, this “spare, intense” play grapples with the legacy of atrocity using “stark lyricism and dreamlike imagery” (LA Times). Featuring acclaimed Portland actresses Cristi Miles, Dana Millican (Portlandia), + Rebecca Lingafelter.

The 70-minute play will be followed by a discussion with playwright Guillermo Calderón, Prof. Tamara Lea Spira (Women’s and Gender Studies), and Amalia Gladhart (Romance Languages). Moderated by Ruth Wikler-Luker, Boom Arts/Portland.

Cosponsored with the Department of Theatre Arts.

VISUAL JUSTICE: DEMOCRATIZED VIDEO AS EVIDENCE

A talk by Kelly Matheson

5:00 p.m.  Knight Law School 110   Free

Kelly Matheson is the recipient of the first James Blue Award, presented by the James and Richard Blue Foundation, and a guest of the Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics at the University of Oregon. Matheson serves as a senior attorney and program manager for WITNESS, an international human rights organization that specializes in using video to support change in human rights practice, policy, and law. Matheson will return to the UO School of Law, where she received her doctor of jurisprudence degree, to address how videos documenting injustices, captured on phones and other cameras by citizens who are often risking their lives, can be used as evidence in judicial proceedings and for human rights advocacy. She will present a number of case studies from Syria and other locations across the globe demonstrating how video has been used to secure prosecutions of the guilty or exonerations of the innocent.

Cosponsored with the Good Works Film Festival.

VIOLETA WENT TO HEAVEN

6:45 p.m.  Bijou Art Cinemas 

WITH MORNING HEARTS

With filmmaker David MacDougall

7:30 p.m.  Whitsell Auditorium, Portland Art Museum

India-Australia, 2001
Directed by: David MacDougall
Running Time: 110 minutes

In recent years, the acclaimed ethnographic filmmaker David MacDougall has been drawn to India as a dominant focus, placing special emphasis on institutions for children and the experience of those growing up in them. His major work from this period is the “Doon School Chronicles,” a series of films shot at the eponymous and elite boarding school over the course of three years. One of India’s most highly regarded boarding schools for boys, the Doon School allowed MacDougall to film daily life in its classrooms and, more importantly, in the living quarters from 1997 to 2000. MacDougall’s patience resulted in a five-film cycle, including With Morning Hearts, following a group of boys through their first year in the school.

With great sensitivity to social, material, and aesthetic details and a keen eye for significant moments of interaction and emotion, With Morning Hearts focuses on a group of twelve-year-olds during their first year in one of the “houses” for new boys. The film explores the boys’ attachment to the house but, more importantly, their attachment to one another in a communal life. It follows, in particular, the experiences of one boy and several of his close associates, from their initial homesickness, to their life as members of the group, to their separation from the house at the end of the year.

Visual ethnographer Steef Meyknecht writes, “By giving us an intimate portrait of daily life at the Doon School, the film demonstrates the way in which leading Indian families try to reproduce their values in the next generation. With characteristic MacDougall framing, this well-structured film is proof of the filmmaker’s pleasure in his subject and the art of well-researched observational cinema.

EL TOPO

9:35 p.m.  Bijou Art Cinemas 

As stated by The Oregonian’s Shawn Levy, El Topo is “partly a revenge tale, partly a religious allegory, partly a spaghetti Western, partly a savage nightmare, and entirely, utterly unique.” Alejandro Jodorowsky’s legendary, notorious cult hit essentially created the genre of the midnight movie—a spectacle so stunning and bizarre that normal hours couldn’t contain it. Incorporating influences from tarot to the Bible to surrealism into a mind-blowing western, Jodorowsky cast himself as the leather-clad gunman, El Topo (“the mole”), who wanders through a desert strewn with mystical symbols on an unnamed quest, leaving blood and carnage in his wake. Declared a masterpiece by John Lennon himself, who helped the film get U.S. distribution, the film tops even the most outrageous aesthetic experiments of its radical era and remains unmatched in its provocations and strange beauty.

KENYA BORAN

With codirector David MacDougall

7:00 p.m.  Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art Lecture Room  Free

 

Kenya-United States, 1972Directed by: James Blue and David MacDougall

Writers: James Blue and David MacDougall

Producer: Dr. Norman Miller

Running time: Part One: 33 Minutes. Part Two: 33 Minutes

“Hasn’t the government any work to do? Hasn’t it any camels like us? All the government thinks of is paper!” spouts an impassioned Boran man in fireside conversation with a friend. His friend responds flatly, “It wants all the children to go to school.” Kenya Boran documents the changes that come to a previously insular desert people as Kenya is rapidly developed in the 1970s. A busy new road has split the mountainous upper portion and lowlands of the Boran land, forcing the herding people to adapt to an environment changing without their consent. The Boran people struggle to accept rules of a new government that is ignorant of their long-enduring ways. The film’s second part follows a 16-year-old former herdsman, Peter Boru, as he navigates a boarding school far removed from his people and way of life. Peter’s life is contrasted with that of traditional herdsman Dokata, who remains faithful to the Boran ways.

James Blue and David MacDougall demonstrate their observational expertise in this insightful 1972 documentary. As boldly asked by the Boran people, “Education is for what?” In the face of overwhelming disparities in a developing third world nation, the question is not an easy one to answer. Peter’s completion of boarding school means little in the fledgling Kenyan economy. Dokata’s herding may soon be made impossible. There are no simple answers to the questions posed by Kenya Boran and this impartial work makes no attempt to sway its audience in favor of either the Boran or government intervention. The film’s power lies in its complex treatment of both the people and the issues involved in modernization.