Screenings

College of Southern Nevada Screening Recap

Standard

Rae at the College of Southern Nevada

On Thursday, we held a screening at Professor David Wang’s Chinese language class at the College of Southern Nevada. The students who were taking the class came from very different backgrounds, and their reasons for taking Chinese were equally diverse. One individual had a dream of moving to China and setting up an orphanage. Another student was half-Chinese and wanted to connect with her parent’s family in Taiwan. Yet another saw China as the next thing and didn’t want himself nor his family left behind in the coming years.

There’s a photo of me when I was a child learning Chinese characters, but I don’t really recall every going to Chinese School. I studied French from junior high through college. Living in France was never a problem for me because I was confident in my language abilities. That confidence was non-existent in China or even Hong Kong where my parents are from. I think I speak for many Asian-Americans of my generation who either (1) didn’t go to Chinese School or (2) didn’t really pay attention at Chinese School that I really wish I went to and excelled at Chinese School! It’s never too late for me, however, and I’m looking forward to the day when I will learn Chinese.

Here are some photos from our screening at the College of Southern Nevada. Afterwards, Cynthia from the US China Peoples Friendship Association drove us to the airport so we could catch our flight to Phoenix, Arizona. Big thanks go out to her, as well as Pongky and Myta for hosting us in Las Vegas.

Read the rest of this post and view the photos »

UNLV Screening Recap

Standard

Autumn Gem at UNLV

Our Spring 2010 Tour of Autumn Gem got off to a great start last night at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The screening was held at the Marjorie Barrick Museum Auditorium / Harry Reid Center for Environmental Studies (or MSM/HRC for short) and was sponsored by the Asian Film and Drama Club, Asian Studies Program, Department of Foreign Languages and the Las Vegas chapter of the US China Peoples Friendship Association. We first got the idea to come to Las Vegas after meeting with UNLV’s Joan Mann when she in San Francisco for the USCPFA’s National Convention last September. Big thanks go out to her, Cynthia Tripp and Professor Ying Bao for organizing!

We had anywhere from 60-70 people at the screening. This time, we remember to write down the questions that we got from the crowd. Some of the notable ones included:

  • Did Qiu Jin see herself as a poet or literary figure? We certainly feel this was the case. Qiu Jin left behind 200 poems and writings following her death.
  • What prompted us to do the film and how does it relate to today’s sociological issues? Introducing the story of a influential Asian feminist to a Western audience was a driving force behind the project. We certainly feel her example still is relevant to women today.
  • Are we talking to PBS or the History Channel to get this film shown on television? This is certainly one of our long-term goals for the film.

Read the rest of this post and view the photos »

UC Santa Cruz Screening Recap

Standard

Rae at UC Santa Cruz

First off, apologies for the tardiness in getting this entry up. After the UC Irvine screening, I realized that I never wrote about the UC Santa Cruz showing that was held on January 25, 2010. This happened during the big winter storms here in the Bay Area. Fortunately, when we drove down to Santa Cruz, it wasn’t raining too much; it helped that we took Highway 17 when it wasn’t busy with commuter traffic. I’ve driven in that once or twice, and it’s not fun when there’s no rain, let alone a torrential downpour!

Department of History Professor, Gail Hershatter, greeted us when we arrive at the University. We had dinner with several of her graduate students before heading over to Merrill College Room 102. Due to the weather, Rae and I weren’t sure how many people would come, but we were pleasantly surprised to have over thirty students and faculty members present.

At the time of this writing, we’re getting ready to embark on our two and a half week tour to Las Vegas, Arizona, Maryland, Boston, New Jersey and New York. I’ve reread my packing strategy and packing recap posts from our October 2009 tour, and I’ve been making the necessary adjustments to get our load down to just two carry-on items for the entire trip. I’ll have a full post about this before we leave. In the meantime, here are a few photos from our UC Santa Cruz screening.

Here are photos from our screening at UC Santa Cruz.

American Association of University Women Screening Recap

Standard

Adam and Rae with Qiu Jin's great-grandnephew!

This past Saturday, we screened Autumn Gem at the Willow Glen Branch Library in San Jose. The event was sponsored by the local chapter of the American Association of University Women, an organization dedicated to advancing “equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, philanthropy and research.” Marilyn, Linda, Mary, and the rest of the AAUW staff did an excellent job advertising the event. We filled up the Community Room to capacity with 63 people! Also in attendance was Kien-Wei, our friend who played one of the Qing soldiers in the film.

During the question and answer session, a question was asked about the whereabouts of Qiu Jin’s descendants. I mentioned that we’ve tried to locate Qiu Jin’s granddaughter, but have not yet been successful. “You just can’t enter Qiu Jin’s Granddaughter” in Google or Facebook and hope to get the address!” Imagine our surprise near the end of the Q&A when a Chinese gentleman in the front row raised his hand and stated that he was the great grandnephew of Qiu Jin! Charles then explained that he was very moved and honored watching our documentary. Suffice it to say, we were honored to have him at our screening!

Read the rest of this post and view the photos »

UC Irvine Screening Recap

Standard

Autumn Gem Screening at UC Irvine

Last week, Rae and I traveled down to Southern California for a screening at UC Irvine. Professor Hu Ying, Associate Professor, East Asian Languages & Literature, was one of our three academic interview subjects in Autumn Gem. We showed the film at Connecticut College and Brown University during our October 2009 tour, so we were excited to complete our scholarly tour!

We drove down a few days before to meet up with filmmaker Arthur Dong, who screened his latest documentary Hollywood Chinese at the South Pasadena Library on Thursday. Meeting with him on Saturday at the Chinese American Museum in Los Angeles, we discussed methods to better market the film to our core audience of educational institutions and Chinese/women’s organizations.

On Tuesday, we returned to UC Irvine for the first time since we interviewed Professor Hu Ying in May, 2008. It certainly doesn’t feel like nearly two years have passed! We attended her Gender in Chinese Poetry class and listened to three of her students presenting their interpretations of Qiu Jin’s poems. Although the English translations were different, I could immediately identify some of the ones we used in Autumn Gem. Following lunch at the University Club, Rae and I retired to the spacious Student Center to get some work done before the screening. A few hours later, we headed to the McCormick Theater in the new Humanities Center building.

Read the rest of the post and see the photos »

Berkeley Screening Recap and Photos

Standard

Autumn Gem at UC Berkeley

It’s been a week since our screening at Rae’s alma mater. Apologies on the delay getting this recap and photo gallery out. We had another great turnout at Berkeley last Thursday. Thanks to AAS 121 (Professor Harvey Dong’s Chinese American History class), Asian American Studies, Asian Pacific American Student Development, Cal Taiji & Cal Wushu for sponsoring and publicizing the event. By our count there were about 130 people in attendance, ranging from students to faculty and to the sister of Tien-Fang Hou, one of the sponsors of our New Jersey screening in October. The crowd didn’t give me too much of a hard time being the Stanford-half of the Autumn Gem team; I’ve never been one to be too into the whole Stanford-Cal rivalry. After all, many of my relatives attended Cal, and I grew up a bear loving fan before becoming a tree hugger.

With the Berkeley screening, we concluded our tour schedule for 2009. Autumn Gem will be back in 2010 on January 9, 2010 at 2:00 pm, at the San Francisco Public Library in Chinatown. We hope our successful 2009 season will be a springboard for a great 2010!

Read the rest of this post »

Stanford University Screening Recap and Photos

Standard

Autumn Gem at Stanford University

With over a month to prepare for our Stanford screening tonight, we made sure we got the word out about the film through as many channels as possible. The Center for East Asian Studies was the co-sponsor for the event, and they helped flyer the campus, email various mailing lists, and list the screening on Stanford’s Events web site. Stefan from the Palo Alto Independent Films Group brought a sizeable contingent from his Meetup group to the showing. Another Meetup group brought a large group of Asian professionals. This week’s article in the Palo Alto Weekly also produced a big draw tonight. By my estimations, there were over 150 people of all ages at tonight’s screening of Autumn Gem. The lower portion of Cubberley was so packed it reminded me when I was a frosh taking Humanities in the very same auditorium! Thanks to everyone who came out to see our film!

Read the rest of this post »