AAS 2022

FILM EXPOALL FILM SCREENINGS ARE OPEN TO THE PUBLIC**Conference registration is not required.

Schedule By Date

Thursday, March 24, 2022

2

SCREENING TIME

FILM TITLE

LENGTH

Q&A COUNTRY OF FOCUS

PAGE

12:30pm

Americaville

80 minONLINE

China, United States

6

2:00pmTHE MOUNTAIN PATH - my search for ahermit Zen master in China

96 minONLINE

China

6

3:50pmZero as You Are

84 minONLINEJapan

8

5:25pm

DWANDHA (The Duel): A Tale of Two Rebels 52 minIN
PERSON

Sri Lanka

11

Friday, March 25, 2022
SCREENING TIME

FILM TITLE

LENGTH

8:30amDeath of the One who Knows

82 min

10:00am

The Ice Cream Sellers

75 min

11:25amBaato

12:55pm

Q&A COUNTRY/REGION OF FOCUS

PAGE

Indonesia

13

ONLINE

Bangladesh

11

81 minONLINENepal

12Abandoned: The Stories of Japanese War
Orphans in The Philippines and China

98 minONLINEThe Philippines, China,
Japan

8

2:45pm

KIM IL SUNG's Children

85 minONLINE

North Korea, Eastern
Europe94:20pmNow Is the Past – My Father, Java & the
Phantom Films

88 minIN
PERSON

Japan, Indonesia, andNetherlands

13

6:00pmCOMFORT

73 minIN
PERSONSouth Korea, China

9

Schedule By Date

Saturday, March 26, 2022
SCREENING TIME FILM TITLE

LENGTH

Q&A COUNTRY OF FOCUS

PAGE

8:30amForget Me Not

86 minONLINESouth Korea

10

10:05amKingdom of Archers

87 minONLINE

Bhutan12

11:35amGeographies of Kinship80 minIN
PERSON

Republic of Korea,
United States,
Switzerland, Sweden

10

1:05pmFar East Deep South

77 minIN
PERSON

United States

14

2:35pmBeethoven in Beijing

86 minIN
PERSONChina

7

4:10pm

Our Time Machine

81 minONLINEChina

7

5:40pmBanyak Ayam Banyak Rejeki (ManyChickens, Lots of Luck)

102 min

ONLINE

Indonesia/Yogyakarta(and Central Java)

14

Film titles in each regional section are listed in order of presentation and include director/producer,
year of release, countries of focus, duration, film description, and distribution contacts.

Screenings are located in the Hawaiʻi Convention Center,
Theatre 320, Level 3
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On-demand screenings are located in the Hawaiʻi Convention Center, Theatre 319A, Level 3

CHINA & INNER ASIASCREENING DATE TIME

FILM TITLE

LENGTH

Q&A

COUNTRY OF FOCUS

80 minONLINE

China, United States

6

96 minONLINE

China

6

Saturday, 3/26 2:35pm Beethoven in Beijing

84 minIN
PERSON

China

7

Saturday, 3/26 4:10pm Our Time Machine

81 minONLINE

China

7

Thursday, 3/24 12:30pm Americaville

Schedule By Region

Thursday, 3/24 2:00pm

THE MOUNTAIN PATH - my search for ahermit Zen master in China

NORTHEAST ASIASCREENING DATE TIME

FILM TITLE

LENGTH

Q&A COUNTRY OF FOCUS

Thursday, 3/24 3:50pm

Zero as You Are

84 minONLINEJapan

8

Friday, 3/25

12:55pm

Abandoned: The Stories of Japanese
98 minWar Orphans in The Philippines and China

ONLINEThe Philippines, China,
Japan

8

Friday, 3/25

2:45pm

KIM IL SUNG's Children

85 minONLINE

North Korea, Eastern
Europe9

Friday, 3/25

6:00pmCOMFORT

73 minIN
PERSONSouth Korea, China

9

Forget Me Not

86 minONLINESouth Korea

10

80 minIN
PERSON

Republic of Korea,
United States,
Switzerland, Sweden

10

Saturday, 3/26 8:30am

Saturday, 3/26 11:35am Geographies of Kinship
4

PAGE

PAGE

Schedule By Region

SOUTH ASIASCREENING DATE TIME

FILM TITLE

LENGTH

Q&A

COUNTRY OF FOCUS

PAGE

Thursday, 3/24 5:25pm

DWANDHA (The Duel): A Tale of Two Rebels 52 minIN
PERSON

Sri Lanka

11

Friday, 3/25

10:00am The Ice Cream Sellers

75 minONLINE

Bangladesh

11

Friday, 3/25

11:25am Baato

81 minONLINENepal

12Saturday, 3/26 10:05am Kingdom of Archers

87 minONLINE

Bhutan12

SOUTHEAST ASIA & PACIFIC ISLANDSSCREENING DATE TIME

FILM TITLE

LENGTH

Friday, 3/25

8:30amDeath of the One who Knows

82 minFriday, 3/25

4:20pmNow Is the Past – My Father, Java & the
Phantom Films

88 minBanyak Ayam Banyak Rejeki (ManyChickens, Lots of Luck)

Saturday, 3/26 5:40pm

Q&A

COUNTRY OF FOCUS

PAGE

Indonesia

13

IN
PERSON

Japan, Indonesia, andNetherlands

13

102 min

ONLINE

Indonesia/Yogyakarta(and Central Java)

14

ASIAN AMERICAN

5SCREENING DATE TIME

FILM TITLE

LENGTH

Q&A

COUNTRY OF FOCUS

Saturday, 3/26 1:05pm

Far East Deep South

77 minIN
PERSON

United States

PAGE

14

Americaville

Thursday, March 24, 12:30pm

China & Inner Asia

Directed by Adam James Smith. 2020. China / United States. 80 minutes.
Country/Region Featured: China, United States
Online Q&A with Adam James Smith
Hidden among Beijing’s northern mountain range, a replica of the Wyoming town ofJackson Hole promises to deliver the American dream to its several thousand Chinese
residents. In Americaville, Annie Liu escapes China’s increasingly uninhabitable capital city
to pursue happiness, freedom, romance, and spiritual fulfillment in Jackson Hole; only tofind the American idyll harder to attain than what was promised to her.
Distributed by Adam James Smith, Archfilm
www.americavillefilm.com

THE MOUNTAIN PATH - my search fora hermit Zen master in China

Thursday, March 24, 2:00pm

A film by Edward A. Burger. Produced by Agnes Lam. 2021. USA/China. 96 minutes.
Country/Region Featured: China
Online Q&A with Edward Burger
Inspired by China's Tang Dynasty hermit poets, Buddhist filmmaker Edward A. Burger
went to China at the age of 23 to learn Mandarin and find an old mountain hermit to teachhim Zen. THE MOUNTAIN PATH takes viewers into the Zhongnan Mountains to meet
Burger’s life-long teacher and other recluse Buddhist practitioners living in thesurrounding valleys. We witness the practical everyday challenges of mountain solitude,
while the hermits share precious teachings on life, death, and the journey within.

6

Distributed by One Mind Productions, LLC
www.onemindproductions.com

Beethoven in Beijing

Saturday, March 26, 2:35pm

China & Inner Asia

A film by Jennifer Lin and Sharon Mullally. 2021. USA. 86 minutes.
Country/Region Featured: China
IN-PERSON Q&A with Jennifer Lin
Beethoven in Beijing spotlights the resurgence of classical music in China through thelegacy of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the first American orchestra to perform in China in
1973. Following the end of China’s Cultural Revolution, when Western classical music wasbanned in favor of politically themed works, the onset of “Beethoven fever” began.
Narrated by American and Chinese musicians and historians, the film explores the impactof the Philadelphia Orchestra’s historic tour on China both then and now.
Distributed by History Making Productions.
www.historymakingproductions.com | beethoveninbeijing.com

Our Time Machine

Saturday, March 26, 4:10pm

A film by Yang Sun & S. Leo Chiang. 2020. China. 81 minutes.
Country/Region Featured: China
ONLINE Q&A with S. Leo Chiang
When artist Maleonn realizes that his father suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, he creates“Papa’s Time Machine,” a magical, autobiographical stage performance featuring life-size
mechanical puppets. Through the production of this play, the two men confront theirmortality before time runs out and memories are lost forever.
Distributed by Passion River Films.
http://edu.passionriver.com/our-time-machine-documentary.html

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Zero as You Are

Thursday, March 24, 3:50pm

Northeast Asia

Directed by Miyuki Tokoi. 2020. Japan. 84 minutes.
Country/region featured: JapanONLINE Q&A with Miyuki Tokoi.
24-year-old Sky Kobayashi has been trying to find his true gender since childhood. Born as
a girl, he was one of the first students in Japan to persuade a junior high school to accept
a female as a boy. At 20, he underwent surgeries so that he could legally become a man,the youngest case in Japan. But this was just the beginning. Sky then discovered that hedoes not identify as a man either and is now searching beyond binary genders. We
followed Sky for nine years on his journey through genders.
Distributed by MUSUBI Productions.
https://musubiproductions.amebaownd.com | https://konomi.work

Abandoned: The Stories of Japanese War
Orphans in The Philippines and China
Friday, March 25, 12:55pm
A film by Hiroyasu Obara. 2020. Japan. 98 minutes.
Country/region featured: Philippines, China, JapanONLINE Q&A with Eri Kitada (Rutgers University-New Brunswick).
Addressing family and transnationalism, citizenship and empire, and history and memory
across East and Southeast Asia, this documentary traces forgotten and disappeared
Japanese communities in the Philippines and former Manchuria from the perspective andtestimonies of orphans left behind. Now approaching the end of their lives, children offormer migrants share how families grapple with legal, economic, and emotional questionsof historically fraught diaspora communities from areas colonized or occupied by Japan
which were destroyed during and after World War II, along with the Japanese empire itself.

8

Distributed by K-Project | http://wasure-mono.com/

KIM IL SUNG's Children

Friday, March 25, 2:45pm

Northeast Asia

Directed by Young Kim. 2020. Korea. 85 minutes.
Country/region featured: North Korea, Eastern Europe
ONLINE Q&A Young Kim.
This documentary is a true story of the North Korean orphans sent out to Eastern Europe
in the 1950s. During the war, orphans in the North and South totaled 100,000. While South
Korean orphans moved to Europe and the United States through ‘International Adoption’,the North Korea government choose a unique method called ‘Commissioned Education’. In
contrast with adoption, it was a new life for orphans in foreign countries practicing Socialist
Cosmopolitanism, or Solidarity of socialism, helping each other evacuate war orphans tosafe places. The story of children who were shaped by KIM IL SUNG's ideal, instead of
Stalin's provides a key to understanding North Korea.
Distributed by Docustory Production | https://www.2twohomes.com/

COMFORT

Friday, March 25, 6:00pm

Directed by Emmanuel Moonchil PARK. 2020. South Korea. 73 minutes.
Country/region featured: South Korea, China
IN PERSON Q&A with Emmanuel Moonchil PARK.
KIM Soonak was a survivor of Japanese military sexual slavery and so much more. Her life
after the war was another war in itself. In order to survive, she engaged in prostitution, US
camptown sex trade, and manual labor. Weaving interviews of activists, archive footage,
animation, and the recital of testimonies, the film reconstructs the life stories of the late
KIM Soonak.
Distributed by the filmmaker.
Contact: jazzurup@gmail.com

9Forget Me Not

Saturday, March 26, 8:30am

Directed by Sun Hee Engelstoft. 2019. Korea. 83 minutes.
Country/region featured: South Korea
ONLINE Q&A with Sun Hee Engelstoft.

Northeast Asia

Forget Me Not follows three unwed mothers staying at a shelter in the countryside on Jeju
Island in South Korea. Each mother must decide if she wants to keep the baby or give it up
for adoption. Engelstoft’s sensitive portrait brings us close to a forbidden world and throughher own experience as a Korean adoptee, she gives a deeply personal and extraordinary
insight into a culture in which women can't choose their own fate.
Distributed by Grasshopper Film.
http://store.grasshopperfilm.com/forget-me-not.html
http://www.finalcutforreal.dk/forget-me-not

Geographies of Kinship

Saturday, March 26, 11:35am

Produced and directed by Deann Borshay Liem. 2019. USA. 80 minutes.
Country/region featured: Republic of Korea, United States, Switzerland, Sweden
IN-PERSON Q&A with Deann Borshay Liem.
In this powerful tale about the rise of Korea’s global adoption program, four adult adoptees
return to their country of birth and recover the personal histories that were erased when
they were adopted. Raised in foreign families, each sets out on a journey to reconnect with
their roots, mapping the geographies of kinship that bind them to a homeland they neverknew. Geographies of Kinship will have its premiere national broadcast as part of America
Reframed on public television’s World Channel on May 19th, 2022.

10

Distributed by Mu Films.
www.mufilms.org

DWANDHA (The Duel): A Tale of
Two Rebels

Thursday, March 24, 5:25pm

South Asia

Directed by Udan Fernando. 2019. Sri Lanka. 52 minutes.
Country/region featured: Sri Lanka
IN-PERSON Q&A with Udan Fernando.
DWANDHA (Duel) is about two prominent and influential leaders of two rebel movements
and insurrections in Sri Lanka from the South and North. The film unfolds a period of six
decades of their life trajectories, particularly the childhood experiences that defined theirdestinies and their subsequent political choices which eventually influenced many young
followers. Now in their late seventies, having survived to tell the tale, they reminisce thehistory they created and failed to create.
Distributed by the filmmaker.
Contact: udanfer2014@gmail.com

The Ice Cream Sellers

Friday, March 25, 10:00am

A film by Sohel Rahman. 2021. Bangladesh. 75 minutes.
Country/region featured: Bangladesh.
ONLINE Q&A with Sohel Rahman.
The Ice Cream Sellers is a story of two siblings and the genocide survivors of the Rohingya
community who fled from Myanmar into Bangladesh after a brutal genocide. While most of
the Rohingya people were exhausted from the weight of their trauma, the two siblings
began their new life with hard work, selling cheap ice cream door to door in the world´slargest refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Chittagong, Bangladesh. Their aim is to earn enoughmoney to bribe officials for the release of their father from prison in Myanmar.
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Distributed by the filmmaker.
Contact: sohelvdcinema@gmail.com | https://www.facebook.com/afilmbysohelrahman

BaatoFriday, March 25, 11:25am

A film by Lucas Millard and Kate Stryker. 2020. Nepal / USA. 81 minutes.
Country/region featured: Nepal
ONLINE Q&A with Lucas Millard

South Asia

Every winter Mikma and her family travel by foot from their village deep in the Himalaya of
Nepal to sell local medicinal plants in urban markets. This year, construction of a new
highway to China has begun in their roadless valley, and things are never going to be thesame. With the new road will come new challenges, new opportunities, and ultimately a
new way of being to those who live along its path.
Distributed by Grasshopper Film
http://store.grasshopperfilm.com/baato.html | https://baatofilm.com/

Kingdom of Archers

Saturday, March 26, 10:05am

Directed by Robert Hixon Hanson. 2021. USA. 87 minutes.
Country/region featured: Bhutan
ONLINE Q&A with Robert Hixon Hanson
Traditional archery matches are community-wide events involving song, dance, food, anddrink in Bhutan, but internal and external forces are changing the game. Imported high-techequipment is replacing traditional bamboo bows and arrows, and a government campaign
has introduced international-style archery competition to every school. Through individual
stories intertwined with interviews from the country’s leaders, this film explores many facetsof archery in Bhutan, addressing the challenges of cultural preservation against the forcesof modernization, westernization, and economic development.
12

Distributed by Passion River Films | http://edu.passionriver.com/kingdom-of-archers.html

Death of the One who Knows

Friday, March 25, 8:30am

Southeast Asia & Pacific Islands

Directed by Dana Rappoport. 2020. France. 82 minutes.
Country/region featured: Indonesia

13

In the Toraja highlands of Sulawesi (Indonesia), Lumbaa is one of the last masters of ritual
speech. After his forced conversion to Pentecostalism, he is compelled to stop all his ritual
activity and oratory. Concerned by the disappearance of “those who know”, a young
Catholic priest named Yans Sulo sets out in search of the society’s ancient oral genres,seeking to invent new forms that would keep them alive. The two men meet. But it is toolate. By recounting the life and death of Lumbaa, the film shows how the intrusion of world
religion disrupts a Southeast Asian society.
Distributed by LE MIROIR.
CONTACT: Gabriel CHABANIER, producer gabchab@free.fr

Now Is the Past – My Father, Java &the Phantom Films

Friday, March 25, 4:20pm

Directed by Shin-ichi Ise. 2021. Japan. 88 minutes.
Country/region featured: Japan, Indonesia, and the Netherlands
IN-PERSON Q&A with Shin-ichi Ise.
During WWII, Japan occupied many regions in Asia, claiming release from European
colonialism. Chounosuke Ise, a Japanese film editor, created a variety of propaganda
movies in Indonesia to rationalize Japan’s hegemony in Asia. ‘Now is the Past’ examines
the journey of his son, Shin-ichi Ise, a Japanese documentary filmmaker who started
research 30 years ago while following his father’s path. Meanwhile, almost 130 of senior
Ise’s propaganda films were preserved at the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision.
The son has tried to see the truth of war in Indonesia by seeking the father’s work.
Distributed by Ise Film. | www.isefilm.com

Southeast Asia & Pacific Islands

Banyak Ayam Banyak Rejeki(Many Chickens, Lots of Luck)

Directed by Önar Önarsson & Riboet Akbar. Produced by Koes Yuliadi & Dag
Yngvesson. 2020. Indonesia. 102 minutes.
Country/region featured: Indonesia / Yogyakarta and Central Java.
ONLINE Q&A with Dag Yngvesson and Koes Yuliadi.
Banyak Ayam Banyak Rejeki is a hybrid film that documents the growth of criticalperspectives in three very different Indonesian women who happen to share the same
husband. Made over the course of 11 years in the city of Yogyakarta, the film’s unusuallylengthy process compelled its participants to engage with major social and political shiftsthat radically alter the courses of the narrative and their lives. Drawing on local cinematic
wisdom, satire and humor are deployed as “safe” ways to address rapidly expanding Islamic
conservatism and vigilantism and the complex effects of social media on individual agency.
Self-distributed by 5 Monkeys & A Duck | Contact: dag.yngvesson@nottingham.edu.my

Asian American

Far East Deep South

14
3

Saturday, March 26, 5:40pm

Saturday, March 26, 1:05pm

Directed by Larissa Lam. Produced by Baldwin Chiu. 2020. USA. 77 minutes.
Country/region featured: Mississippi, USA
IN-PERSON Q&A with Larissa Lam and Baldwin Chiu.
When a Chinese-American man from California, travels to Mississippi to visit the grave of
his father who abandoned him as a baby, he and his family stumble upon surprisingrevelations that change their lives. Along the way, they meet a diverse group of local
residents and historians, who shed light on the racially complex history of Chinese
immigrants in the segregated South. Their emotional journey leads them to discover how
deep their roots run in America but how the Chinese Exclusion Act separated their family
for generations.
Distributed by New Day Films. | newday.com | FarEastDeepSouth.com

AAS 2022 FILM EXPO
Curator:Jason Finkelman, Global Arts Performance Initiatives, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts; AsiaLENS Film
Series, Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Film Reviewers:

AEMS & AAS

Tim Liao, Head, Department of Sociology; Professor of Sociology, Statistics, and East Asian Languages andCultures, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Misumi Sadler, Director, Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies; Associate Professor of Japanese Linguistics
and Pedagogy, East Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Mara L. Thacker, Associate Professor, Global Popular Culture and South Asian Studies Librarian, University
Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Matthew S. Winters, Associate Professor and Associate Head for Graduate Programs, Department of Political
Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

DID YOU KNOW?

You can add films to your Mobile Appschedule and invite a friend.
Download the AAS 2022 Mobile App:https://guidebook.com/g/aas2022/
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AEMS & AAS

The CENTER FOR EAST ASIAN AND PACIFIC STUDIES (CEAPS) AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOISAT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN is the steward of campus-wide teaching, research, programming, and outreachon East Asia, as well as Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Asian Educational Media Service (AEMS) is an
engagement program of CEAPS promoting the understanding of Asian cultures and peoples by assistingeducators at all levels, from elementary schools to colleges and universities, in finding resources forlearning and teaching about Asia. Established in 1998, AEMS has curated the Association for Asia Studies
Film Expo at the annual conference since 2011, and the AsiaLENS Film Series at the University of Illinois
since 2008.
CEAPS formed The East Asia National Resource Center Consortium in partnership with the East AsianStudies Center at Indiana University, Bloomington in 2005. The IL/IN Consortium has flourished as a Title
VI program of the U.S. Department of Education since 2006 and comprises one of the largest faculty
concentrations and most rigorous training programs on East Asian scholarship in the Midwest.
www.ceaps.illinois.edu
The ASSOCIATION FOR ASIAN STUDIES (AAS) is a non-profit dedicated to the advancement of the field of
Asian Studies through international exchange, networking, publications, research support, and careerdevelopment. With over 5,500 members worldwide, representing all regions and countries of Asia and allacademic disciplines, the AAS is the largest organization of its kind. Through its publications, online resources,
regional conferences, and annual conference, the AAS provides its members with a unique and invaluable
professional network.
www.asianstudies.org

16

230 International Studies Building
910 S. Fifth Street, Champaign, IL 61820
Phone : 217.333.7273
ceaps@illinois.edu
www.ceaps.illinois.edu

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Urbana, Illinois 61801
Phone: 217-333-9597
aems@illinois.edu
www.aems.illinois.edu

Association for Asian Studies
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Phone: 734-665-2490
www.asianstudies.org