Southeast Asia Center
Friday March 13, 2009
Reception starts at 5:30pm, film starts at 6:00pm
Ethnic Cultural Theatre, 3940 Brooklyn Avenue, NE
It's always interesting to welcome a "first" in Chinese cinema, and Fish and Elephant 's publicity material trumpets it as the first lesbian-themed mainland film. Novice director Li Yu has delivered an engaging film that successfully takes up the challenge, in a thoughtful, often humorous way, even if it doesn't transcend its trail-blazing agenda.
Li Yu is a twenty nine year old filmmaker who was famous as a TV host in China, before making her first film, the independent documentary Sisters, in 1999. Fish and Elephant is her first feature film. It is an "underground" film, which is to say neither its script nor its print was submitted to the Film Bureau for approval. Which is not surprising, given its subject matter.
This film series explores the delicious theme of food and sex in the films of Asia and Asian diasporas. It addresses issues of social class, gender, queer theory, sexuality, and the body in comparative and cultural perspective. In addition, it seeks to explore the ritual of cooking, eating, and sex as sites of conflict and resolution. Some of the questions the series raises are how are foods and sex represented in films of the respective Asian cultures? Who are the consumers of these films?
Various faculty, staff, and students at the University of Washington from different disciplines are interested in the poetics and politics of representation of race, gender, and sexuality in Asian films, whether from Asia or made by diasporic Asians. Moreover, this series also aims to provide a forum for discussions among not only Asian academic populations and others who are interested but also among the larger communities in Seattle-to this end, Asian activists, artists, and students from outside the University will also participate in the series in different capacities.
Each film will be introduced and followed by a discussion lead by the respective UW faculty and Graduate Students.
Sponsored by: The Simpson Center for the Humanities, the Project for Critical Asian Studies, the Division of Art History in the School of Art, the East Asia Center, the South Asia Center, the Southeast Asia Center, the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, and Trikone-Northwest and Tasveer.