CGS News

Global Lens 2009 film series at University YMCA starts Thursday, August 27

The Global Lens 2009 Film Series Comes to the University YMCA, August – October, 2009

Gems of world cinema from countries rarely represented at the multiplex to screen for University of Illinois audiences

San Francisco, CA – August 18, 2009 The Global Film Initiative announced today that its Global Lens film series – ten award-winning narrative, feature films from Argentina, Brazil, China, Ecuador, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Macedonia, Morocco and Mozambique –will screen at the University YMCA at the University of Illinois, on Thursdays at 7pm, beginning August 27 through October 29, 2009. The University YMCA is located at the corner of Wright and Chalmers in Champaign, adjacent to the University of Illinois campus. For information, visit: www.universityymca.org, call 217-337-1500, or email Ann Rasmus, Program Coordinator: ann@universityymca.org.

“This year’s lineup of films, from Central Asia to Latin America, is artistically strong and well balanced – it’s one of our best yet,” says Susan Weeks Coulter, Board Chair of The Global Film Initiative.

Global Lens 2009 includes the Macedonian submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award, I AM FROM TITOV VELES, along with critical favorites GETTING HOME (Ecumenical Jury Prize, Berlin International Film Festival), MUTUM (Directors’ Fortnight) and POSSIBLE LIVES (Pavilion les Cinémas du Sud, Cannes Film Festival). The entire 10-film program delivers a choice slate of storytelling from regions not typically seen in mainstream cinema.

Global Lens is an annual, touring film series launched in 2003 by the Global Film Initiative to support the distribution of critically acclaimed cinematic works from around the world. Since its founding, the series has provided a platform for exceptional storytelling an opened a window into the diverse world in which we live.

2009 marks the first year the series will play at the University YMCA. Global Lens 2009 is made possible by the Center for Global Studies at the University of Illinois, with financial support provided in part from the Title VI program of the US Department of Education. Co-sponsors include the Center for African Studies; Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies; European Union Center; Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies; Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies; Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center; and from the Asian American Cultural Center at the University of Illinois. Parkland College in Champaign also will host the series in early fall, 2009. The Virginia Theater will pick up the series starting in November. For information, visit: http://cgs.illinois.edu, email Karen Hewitt, Outreach Coordinator at the Center for Global Studies, khewitt@illinois.edu.

Global Lens 2009 films: 

·         GETTING HOME (LUO YE GUI GEN), dir. Zhang Yang, China

In a show of loyalty, an aging construction worker carries the body of his fallen friend hundreds of miles to a burial site in China’s Three Gorges region.

·         I AM FROM TITOV VELES (JAS SUM OD TITOV VELES), dir. Teona

Strugar Mitevska, Macedonia

Set in the quaint but scarred town of Veles, three sisters put self-interest above family as they take desperate steps to escape their dying community.

·         MUTUM, dir. Sandra Kogut, Brazil

Burdened by his parents’ unhappy marriage and father’s abuse, a young boy in rural Brazil grapples with his disintegrating family and uncertainties of the adult world.

·         MY TIME WILL COME (CUANDO ME TOQUE A MI), dir. Victor Arregui, Ecuador

In Ecuador’s capital city, a coroner’s fragile emotional life is threatened when he develops a personal interest in his cases.

·         THE PHOTOGRAPH, dir. Nan Triveni Achnas, Indonesia

A prostitute struggling to support her family forms a bond with the reclusive portrait photographer from whom she rents a room.

·         POSSIBLE LIVES (LAS VIDAS POSIBLES), dir. Sandra Gugliotta, Argentina

A woman searching for her missing husband in remote Patagonia encounters a man who appears to be her spouse, but has another name, another wife and another life.

·         SLEEPWALKING LAND (TERRA SONÂMBULA), dir. Teresa Prata,

Mozambique

In war-torn Mozambique, a young boy searches the desolate countryside for his family with the aid of an affectionate yet hard-hearted elderly guide.

·         SONG FROM THE SOUTHERN SEAS (PESN’ JUZHNYKH MOREJ), dir. Marat Sarulu, Kazakhstan

A darkly comic feud is ignited when a Russian man suspects that his son is the result of an affair between his wife and a Kazakh neighbor.

·         THOSE THREE (AN SEH), dir. Naghi Nemati, Iran

A day from completing their military training, three conscripts abandon a dismal army life and head off for freedom through the frozen wilderness of Northern Iran.

·         WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD, dir. Faouzi Bensaïdi, Morocco

On the streets of Casablanca, a prostitute’s best friend – a tough traffic cop – falls in love with her best customer, a contract killer.

The Global Film Initiative is a U.S.-based not-for-profit organization specializing in the support of independent film from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. Founded in 2002 to promote cross-cultural understanding through the language of cinema, the Initiative awards numerous grants to deserving filmmakers from around the world each year, and supports a touring film series entitled Global Lens. For more information about the Global Lens film series and Global Film Initiative programs, please visit: http://www.globalfilm.org.

Global Film Initiative

145 9th Street Suite 105

San Francisco CA  94103

www.globalfilm.org

gfi-info@globalfilm.org

phone:  415.934.9500  fax:  415.934.9501