14 May SIFF 2012 Festival Preview: Asian & Middle Eastern Film Picks

An extended family gathers for the youngest daughter’s wedding, but not all goes as planned. A glowing pastel canvas and sensual score are dreamy counterpoints to the anxieties and celebrations of three generations.

May 22nd @ 6:00pm, Renton IKEA Performing Arts Center
June 1st @ 6:30pm, SIFF Cinema Uptown
June 6th @ 9:30pm, Harvard Exit

A Chinese film that follows an 11-year-old boy through his life. Set during the waning years of the Cultural Revolution and Mao Zedong’s rule, acquaintance with a fugitive from the law. Set during the

May 18th @ 4:30pm, Harvard Exit
May 21st @ 6:00pm, Harvard Exit

Struggling to meet the financial needs for his much-desired life-long journey to Mecca, a religious man must decide how to make his important religious pilgrimage happen without sacrificing his own dignity or steering away his own moral compass.

May 24th @ 8:30pm, Harvard Exit
May 30th @ 9:00pm, SIFF Cinema Uptown

Materialism and status in lower middle class South Korea are filtered through the experiences of Kwon Youn-ho, tasked with resolving his family’s descent into debt hell.

June 3rd @ 5:45pm, Harvard Exit
June 7th @ 4:00pm, Harvard Exit
June 10th @ 8:30pm, SIFF Cinema Uptown

Cambodia produced 400 films between 1960 and 1975, but only a handful of these artistic works survived the Khmer rouge’s devastating reign. Filmmaker Davy Chou awakens the once-magnificent industry through archival material and deep insight.

May 30th @ 6:00pm, SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 31st @ 3:30pm, SIFF Cinema Uptown

Dark and sinister, the portrait of Iranian injustice through the character of Noora, a beautiful young lawyer denied an increasing number of rights.

May 20th @ 11:30am, SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 21st @ 6:30pm, AMC Pacific Place 11
May 26th @ 1:30pm, AMC Pacific Place 11

Cop, monk, or assassin? In this riveting cinematic noir spectacle, a cop-turned-hitman is struck in the head by a bullet and sees the world upside-down with a flashback and forward blur of drug busts, scheming lawyers and seductive women.

May 24th @ 9:00pm, SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 27th @ 4:00pm, AMC Pacific Place 11

A moving study of two brothers, divvied up by divorced parents, who dream of reuniting their family through a bullet-train line. A children’s film with a touch of adult supervision that miraculously holds a lifetime’s range of experience.

June 3rd @ 6:30pm, Egyptian Theatre
June 6th @ 4:00pm, Egyptian Theatre

Divorced and demoted, taxi driver Yousef struggles to make ends meet. When a health crisis looms, he tries to reconnect with his estranged family in this subtle, understated drama, tinged with black humor and stylish minimalism.

May 25th @ 6:00pm, SIFF Cinema Uptown
May 27th @ 11:00am, AMC Pacific Place 11
June 2nd @ 9:30pm, Harvard Exit

Watch Trailer on SIFF Website

Sun Yu’s 1933 silent, starring silent screen queen Ruan Lingyu as a toymaker in a highly political climate, offers a rare glimpse into the Chinese leftist film movement. Legendary musician Donald Sosin performs a live piano score.

May 26th @ 2:30pm, Harvard Exit

The Mirror Never Lies provides a close look at Indonesian island life.

June 9th @ 9:00pm, Harvard Exit
June 10th @ 2:30pm, Harvard Exit

A previously unreleased animation from Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli, Only Yesterday runs throguh the memories of a young 20-something-year-old girl.

May 19th @ 11:00am, Renton IKEA Performing Arts Center
May 23rd @ 6:30pm, Egyptian Theatre

A gender-bending horror-comedy.

May 20th @ 8:30pm, Renton IKEA Performing Arts Center
June 1st @ 9:30pm, Egyptian Theatre
June 2nd @ 2:30pm, Egyptian Theatre

When Xu Xian falls into a mountain lake, a beautiful woman comes to his rescue. Unbeknownst to him, she is a centuries old snake demon with the ability to change form, but she cannot hide her true self from the sorcerer Fa Hai (Jet Li).

June 5th @ 9:15pm, Egyptian Theatre
June 8th @ 6:00pm, Kirkland Performance Center

A story of environmental destruction intersecting with love. Winner of Sundance’s World Cinema Audience Award.

May 18th @ 9:00pm, Harvard Exit
May 19th @ Noon, Harvard Exit
June 3rd @ 6:00pm, Kirkland Performance Center

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Vivian Hua

Website

Vivian Hua 華婷婷 is a writer, filmmaker, and organizer. As the Executive Director of Northwest Film Forum in Seattle and Editor-in-Chief of the interdisciplinary arts publication, REDEFINE, much of her work unifies her metaphysical interests with her belief that art can positively transform the self and society. She regularly shares human-centered stories through her storytelling newsletter, RAMBLIN’ WITH VEE! In 2020, she will [hopefully] begin production on a comedic Asian-American series entitled Reckless Spirits.

Ask Vivian about MARSHMALLOWS, cuz she's gross... and being tips for being frugal while nomading!

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