An American in Madras traces American-born filmmaker Ellis R. Dungan’s years in India. Born in 1909 and hailing from Barton, Ohio, Dungan reached India on February 25th, 1935 intending to stay for 6 months, but ended up staying for 15 years! During this period, he brought many technical innovations to the developing Tamil Film Industry of the 1930s and ‘40s, and all this, without understanding the language.

WE JUNG YI is Assistant Professor of Asian Studies and Comparative Literature at the Pennsylvania State University. Her book manuscript, entitled Remembering the Unfinished War: Literature, Film, and the Politics of Mourning in South Korea, engages with the cultural turn in Korean literary studies by tracing historical and aesthetic connections among diverse forms of Korean War memories.

Peace is a documentary that examines questions of coexistence through the intermingled story of three people and some stray cats in Okayama, Japan. Toshio Kashiwagi runs an affordable taxi service for the disabled and the elderly, having retired as a principal at a special school. Meanwhile, he feeds a group of stray cats everyday. However, there is a growing tension in the cats' peaceful community because a male "thief cat," an outsider, is trying to invade it.

MENTAL is a feature-length documentary that observes the complex world of an outpatient mental health clinic in Japan, interwoven with patients, doctors, staff, volunteers, and home-helpers, in cinema-verite style. The film breaks a major taboo against discussing mental illness prevalent in Japanese society, and captures the candid lives of people coping with suicidal tendencies, poverty, a sense of shame, apprehension, and fear of society.

The filmmaker, Soda Kazuhiro, will be present for a Q&A session following the screening.

Part of the "Asia on Screen" series.

We’d like to invite you to attend the tenth annual Silk Screen Asian American Film Festival from July 10th-19th. The festival is a showcase of Asian films and filmmakers with origins in Asian cultures. This year there will be 57 showings in three locations: the Regent Square Theater, the Melwood Screening Room, and the Melwood Classroom. The centerpiece film will be the official Pakistani entry to the Oscars Dukhtar. For more details, please visit www.silkscreenfestival.org.

The movies will be shown in their original filming languages with English subtitles when necessary. Offering a cinematic tour of Italy, the National Italian Film Festival in Pittsburgh is also pleased to host a special appearance from the film director of L’Arbitro, Paolo Zucca, on April 10th. For more information, please see this LINK for the upcoming viewings.

French filmmaker Jean-Marie Villeneuve will present his film Tout est faux on Sat, Apr 18 at 6pm in CL 332 in a free screening and director Q&A

DEPARTMENT OF CLASSICS SPONSORS MOVIE NIGHT
"A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM"

SOMETHING APPEALING, SOMETHING APPALLING, SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE...A COMEDY TONIGHT!!

When a wily, witty, lying, lazy cheating slave discovers that his master's son is in love with the girl next door - a virgin courtesan - he promises to help win her heart in exchange for his freedom. But the road to romance is blocked with amazing surprises, cunning sidguises - and an awesome chariot race!

THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2015
6:00 p.m.
CATHEDRAL OF LEARNING G13

Join us for a screening of Lessons in Dissent, a documentary centering on the student activist Joshua Wang, one of the leaders of the democracy protests in Hong Kong. Afterward, Matthew Torne, the director of the film, will be available to answer questions on his experiences filming the documentary. Professor Michael Goodhart of the Department of Sociology will join Matthew Torne in a discussion panel of recent global social movements.