Day: October 8, 2009

Screening at Columbia College Chicago

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This morning, we departed Madison, Wisconsin, in the seat of a Coach USA bus. Our destination was Chicago, Illinois, and Columbia College Chicago. Switching buses at Janesville, Rae and I slept most of the way to Chicago. When we arrived at Union Station, it was raining outside; good thing that we came prepared with our waterproof jackets and rain-resistant luggage. We took a taxi to Columbia College Chicago building at 1104 S. Wabash Avenue, which houses portions of the Film and Video Department as well as Film Row Cinema where Autumn Gem was later screened. There were many creative types milling around the dining commons, where they were holding a Meet and Greet. Student filmmakers pitched their ideas to their fellow classmates, hoping to snag a few to work on their semester film projects as art directors, cinematographers, casting directors, gaffers, and editors. We certainly could have used some help in those departments; during the production of Autumn Gem, we often felt stretched thin performing all of these tasks between the two of us.

We’ve had some great screening locales, and Film Row Cinema was no exception. Though we had another intimate screening, we had another spirited discussion afterwards. One of the audience members asked why we focused so much on scholars views of Qiu Jin instead of Chinese feminists views on her. While in Hangzhou by the Qiu Jin Monument, we did record some man-on-the-street interviews about people’s perception of Qiu Jin. In the end, however, we felt that those interviews did not fit well within the overall narrative of the film. In addition, adding them in would have extended the running time to over an hour, which we did not want to do. In the final cut, Autumn Gem is aimed at introducing the story of Qiu Jin to someone who has little or no knowledge of her. Perhaps in the future, we’ll include some clips from our Hangzhou interviews on this web site.

Following the screening, we met up with our friends, Ivan, Margaret, Steve, Jeff and Rina. We had authentic Chicago-style pizza for dinner at Lou’s. We’ll be staying in Chicago for a few days before heading out to Champaign-Urbana on Monday.

Here are photos from our screening at Columbia College.

Screening at University of Wisconsin-Whitewater

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Autumn Gem at UW-W

Last night, we had a good turnout of about fifty students and faculty members at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Winther Hall 2001 had two screens, so if you crossed your eyes, you would have thought you were watching Autumn Gem in 3-D!

The first question asked from the crowd was how we financed the film; Autumn Gem was (and still is) solely financed by the two of us; that’s one reason why we’ve devoted a section of our presentation to fundraising. We’ve been able to recoup some of the production and marketing costs through private donations, but we’ve still got a long way to go. All donations to Autumn Gem are tax-deductible, since the film is fiscally sponsored by the San Francisco Film Society. If you’d like more information on supporting Autumn Gem, visit our support page.

Another question was whether or not Qiu Jin ever saw her family after leaving for Japan. The answer is no; she died without ever seeing them again. Two years after her death, her husband died. Their son was raised by the husband’s family, and the daughter was raised by Qiu Jin’s family. Her daughter was only two years old when Qiu Jin left, but she grew up and eventually wrote several biographies of her mother. We’re aware that Qiu Jin’s granddaughter lives somewhere in the United States, but we’ve been unable to locate her; if anyone reading this can get in touch with her, that would be great!

Here are some photos from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater screening of Autumn Gem.