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international cinema

Week 12 Preview: Sofia, Morgen, A Special Day, and One Child Nation

By | Event, Podcast

Despite the temporary closure of International Cinema’s public screenings because of the COVID-19 virus, we will continue to preview the films that were to be screened in the hopes that you are able to find them elsewhere. We are working with distributors to see if we can work out arrangement to have IC go virtual. More on that if/when details become available. In the mean time here is Marie-Laure Oscarson, Marc Yamada, and Chip Oscarson introducing:

  • Sofia (01:21), a social drama from 2018 by director Meryem Benm’Barek-Aloisi about human rights and women’s freedom;
  • Morgen (04:30), a gentle comedy set on the Romanian-Hungarian border directed by Marian Crisan and Anca Puiu from 2010;
  • A Special Day (07:41)an Italian film from 2012 directed by Francesca Comencini that helps to pre-figure the metoo movement;
  • and our documentary for the week: One Child Nation (10:50) directed by Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang from 2019 exploring the human and social costs of China’s one-child policy.

Week 10 in Review Part 2: The Chambermaid and Hard Labor

By | Event, Podcast

This week in review episode is in two parts. Chip Oscarson, Marie-Laure Oscarson, and Marc Yamada talk about the films that screened at IC from 4-7 March including the films from the  Upstairs/Downstairs series about class on film. In the second part, Prof. Doug Weatherford (Spanish) and Prof. Rex Nielson (Portuguese) are guests.  The films include:

Part 1: go to previous installment

  • the documentary, Maiden  from 2018, directed by Alex Holmes about the first all-woman crew to compete in the Whitbred Round the World Race in 1989;
  • Parasite , the Oscar winning Best Film from 2019, the first ever non-English language film to win the award. Directed by Bong Joon-ho from 2019;

Part 2:

  • (with Prof. Doug Weatherford) The Chambermaid (00:00) a look at the oft-times invisible work of a young woman working in a luxurious Mexico City hotel. Directed by Lila Avilés from 2018;
  • and (with Prof. Rex Nielson) Hard Labor (12:35), a Brazilian film about work and the decaying social fabric of the 21st century by Marco Dutra and Juliana Rojas from 2011.

Week 10 in Review Part 1: Maiden, Parasite

By | Event, Podcast

This week in review episode is in two parts. Chip Oscarson, Marie-Laure Oscarson, and Marc Yamada talk about the films that screened at IC from 4-7 March including the films from the  Upstairs/Downstairs series about class on film. In the second part, Prof. Doug Weatherford (Spanish) and Prof. Rex Nielson (Portuguese) are guests.  The films include:

Part 1:

  • the documentary, Maiden (1:29) from 2018, directed by Alex Holmes about the first all-woman crew to compete in the Whitbred Round the World Race in 1989;
  • Parasite (07:24), the Oscar winning Best Film from 2019, the first ever non-English language film to win the award. Directed by Bong Joon-ho from 2019;

Part 2: go to next installment

  • (with Prof. Doug Weatherford) The Chambermaid a look at the oft-times invisible work of a young woman working in a luxurious Mexico City hotel. Directed by Lila Avilés from 2018;
  • and (with Prof. Rex Nielson) Hard Labor , a Brazilian film about work and the decaying social fabric of the 21st century by Marco Dutra and Juliana Rojas from 2011.

A Turk Walks into a Transylvanian Bar…: Cultural and Personal Borders in Contemporary Romania

By | Lectures

Due to the shutdown of classes at BYU, this lecture has been postponed. We will put information here as soon we know when it will be re-scheduled.

Join the International Cinema community on Wednesday March 18 at 5pm in 250 KMBL for a lecture by Prof. Anca Sprenger (French and Italian) on the background to the film Morgen. The title the lecture is: “A Turk Walks into a Transylvanian Bar…: Cultural and Personal Borders in Contemporary Romania.”

Week 11 Preview: Woman at War, Sullivan’s Travels, O Brother Where Art Thou?, The Two Faces of a Bamiléké Woman

By | Event, Podcast

IC directors Marc Yamada, Marie-Laure Oscarson, and Chip Oscarson preview the films for Week 11 (11-14 March) at International Cinema including:

  • Woman at War (02:45) directed by Benedikt Erlingsson, a 2018 Icelandic film about Halla, a 50-year-old woman leading a double life as a passionate, environmental guerrilla activist;
  • A pair of related films in: Preston Sturges’s classic 1941 comedy Sullivan’s Travels (05:52) as well as..
  • Joel and Ethan Coen’s comedy adaptation of the Odyssey from 2000, O Brother, Where Art Thou? (10:40);
  • And then lastly, our documentary from Cameroonian filmmaker Rosine Mfetgo Mbakam from 2018: The Two Faces of a Bamiléké Woman (13:17)

Week 9 in Review: Ága, Arctic, The Gold Rush, Genesis 2.0

By | Event, Podcast

The IC directors Chip Oscarson, Marie-Laure Oscarson, and Marc Yamada talk about the films that screened 26-29 February including:

  • Ága (01:13), a film in the Siberian language Yakut directed by Milko Lazarov from 2018;
  • Arctic (05:30) from 2018, a modern-day Robinsonade directed by Joe Penna about a man (Mads Mikkelsen) stranded and fighting for survival in the Arctic;
  • The Gold Rush (10:13), Charlie Chaplin’s comedic masterpiece from 1925 that he re-released in 1942 filmed on a Hollywood set standing in for the Yukon;
  • and our documentary this week, Genesis 2.0 (14:49), directed by Christian Frei and Maxim Arbugaev from 2018 about climate change, bringing back extinct species, and the ethics of synthetic biology.

From the Coens to Homer: Mythological Adaptation in “Oh Brother, Where art Thou?”

By | Lectures

Join us at International Cinema on 11 March 2020 at 5pm in 250 KMBL for a lecture by Prof. Roger Macfarlane (Classics) on the Coen brothers’ O Brother Where Art Thou and its relationship to Homer’s The Odyssey. The title of the lecture is: “‘πολλοῖσιν γὰρ ἔγωγε ὀδυσσάμενος ἱκανώ,’ from the Coens to Homer: Mythological Adaptation in O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Week 10 Preview: Upstair-Downstairs week with Hard Labor, The Chambermaid, Parasite, and Maiden

By | Event, Podcast

This week Chip Oscarson and Marie-Laure Oscarson preview the films coming to International Cinema Week 9 (4-7 March) including:

  • Hard Labor (01:32), a Brazilian film about work and the decaying social fabric of the 21stcentury by Marco Dutra and Juliana Rojas from 2011;
  • The Chambermaid (03:45) a look at the oft-times invisible work of a young woman working in a luxurious Mexico City hotel. Directed by Lila Avilés from 2018;
  • Parasite (07:24), the academy award willing best film from 2019, the first ever non-English language film to win the award. Directed by Bong Joon-ho from 2019;
  • And lastly, we have the documentary, Maiden (11:08) from 2018, directed by Alex Holmes about the first all-woman crew to compete in the Whitbred Round the World Race in 1989.

Week 8 Review: The Wave, Millennium Actress, War and Peace, And Then They Came for Us

By | Event, Podcast

This week Chip Oscarson and Marie-Laure Oscarson are joined by Jojo Hegström-Pratt (student, TMA) and Prof. Mark Purves (Russian) to discuss the films at IC from week 7 including:

  • Millennium Actress (01:23) a Japanese animé film from 2001 written and directed by Satoshi Kon;
  • The Wave (11:22), a Norwegian disaster film directed by Roar Uthaug from 2015, the next in our Anthropocene Cinema series;
  • the documentary about the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII directed by Abby Ginzberg from 2017 And Then They Came for Us (18:30);
  • The last installment, Pierre Bezukhov, of Sergei Bondarchuk 1966 adaptation of Tolstoy’s War and Peace (22:39).