Asian Film Festival to explore humanism, political divides

Author: Julie Hail Flory

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The University of Notre Dame will welcome filmmakers and scholars to campus Feb.3 to 6(Friday to Monday) for its annual Asian Film Festival and conference, this year titled “Humanism Before Ideology.”

The event will showcase four films from greaterAsiaand include an academic forum of internationally renowned scholars, who also will visit classrooms to conduct student workshops.

The flagship film for the conference will be “Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War,” an apolitical work by acclaimed South Korean director Kang Je-Gyu about the Korean War, told from the perspective of a family living in Seoul when the conflict began. The film will be presented in two screenings Friday and Saturday.

Other festival highlights include an academic panel featuring opening remarks by Wook Kim, consul general of the Republic of Korea in Chicago, at 10 a.m. Sunday (Feb. 5) in McKenna Hall. A complete schedule of events is available on the Web at http://www.nd.edu/~ftt/ .

Other featured films are:

  • “The Terrorist” by Indian cinematographer Santash Sivan, a film loosely based on the 1991 assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, but set in present-dayIndia
  • “Song of the Stork” by directors Jonathan Foo and Phan Quang binh Ngyuen, the first cinematic collaboration by Singaporean and Vietnam directors about the Vietnam War **
  • “Peacock,” the debut film of Chinese filmmaker Gu Changwei, which focuses on the trials and tribulations of a family after the end of the Chinese cultural revolution **

The conference is sponsored by Notre Dame’s Department of Film, Televison and Theatre (FTT) in collaboration with the University’s Centers for Asian Studies, CreativeComputing and Social Concerns,CollegeofArtsand Letters,DeBartoloCenterfor the

Performing Arts, Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, FTT Talks, Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts, International Student Services and Activities, Kellogg Institute, Korean Graduate Business Student and Korean Student Associations, Mendoza College of Business, Offices of Campus Ministry and Research, Undergraduate Asia Group, the Liu Family Endowment for Asian Studies and Development, and the Undergraduate Asia Group, as well as the Asian Pacific Alumni of Notre Dame, Chinese Culture Society and Chinese Friendship Association. **

* Contact: * _Aaron Magnan-Park, assistant professor, FTT, 574-631-8806, magnan-park.1@nd.edu _

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