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March 18, 12:00 p.m.
Presented by Professor Jerome Feldman, Hawaii Pacific University

In the Danish National Museum, there are many unique remnants of a once great chief’s house from Nias, Indonesia. These are some truly fine works of art from a vanishing tradition on a remote island. The visitor however would never suspect the incredible story behind these now scattered but extraordinary artifacts. It is a narrative of high art and high achievement with a heavy overlay of criminality and debauchery.

Jerome Feldman teaches art history at Hawaii Pacific University. His specialization is in the arts of tribal Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. He received his Ph.D. in tribal art history from Columbia University and has conducted field studies in remote islands of Indonesia and Polynesia. He has studied museum collections in Europe and America and has aided in several important exhibitions including The Eloquent Dead at the Fowler Museum at UCLA, Nias Tribal Treasures at the Volkenkundig Meumeu Nusantara in Delft, and Beyond the Java Sea a Smithsonian sponsored traveling exhibition. He has also written books and articles and lectured extensively on tribal Southeast Asian, Micronesian and Polynesian art and architecture. In fall 2004, he was the Slade Visiting Professor at Cambridge University, England. between distribution patterns of human knowledge of biodiversity and actual biodiversity.

Wednesday, 12 March
6:30 p.m. – Korean Studies Auditorium

Directed by Robin Moran
Indonesia, 2006, 118 minutes
Indonesian with English Subtitles

Robin Moran’s comedy proudly takes its template from Hollywood, celebrating its old-fashioned sensibility. A klutzy engineering student, Dennis (Ariyo Wahab), is the heir to a successful soy sauce factory started by his grandfather. Everyone believes that the company’s success is owed to its magical mascot, a rooster. When the fowl dies, Dennis must find another. Of course, the movie comes complete with a sneaky villain (Butet Kartaredjasa), a pretty girl (Uli Auliani) and a jealous rival (Epy Kusnandar). A favorite at the Bangkok and Cinequest International Film Festivals!

Friday, March 14, 6:30 p.m.
Korean Studies Auditorium

Virgins from Hell
Perawan Disarang Sindikat
Indonesia, 1987, Indonesian w/E.S., 90 minutes
Directed by Ackyl Anwari
followed by a documentary on Indonesian genre cinema!

Friday, March 14, 8:30 p.m.
Korean Studies Auditorium

Lady Terminator
Pembalasan Ratu Pantai Selata
Indonesia, 1989, Indonesian w/E.S., 82 minutes
Directed by Jalil Jackson

Saturday, March 15, 6:30 p.m.
Korean Studies Auditorium

For Your Height Only
Philippines, 1980, Tagalog w/E.S., 88 minutes
Directed by Eddie Nicart and Bruce Le
followed by a documentary on Filipino genre cinema!

Saturday, March 15, 8:30 p.m.
Korean Studies Auditorium

Silip, the Daughters of Eve
Philippines, 1986, Tagalog w/E.S., 125 minutes
Directed by Elwood Perez

Wednesday, 5 March
6:30 p.m. – Korean Studies Auditorium

Directed by Yasmin Ahmad
Malaysia, 2006, 90 minutes
Malay with English Subtitles

Ten-year-old Orked is the kind of kid who confronts bullies she sees harassing smaller children, but hides under her bed when the neighborhood girls try to recruit her to join in their game of “wedding.” Her amorous, nonconformist parents, Pak Atan and Mak Inom, are fodder for local gossip. “Malays who have forgotten their roots,” sniffs the woman next door while watching Orked and her mother dancing outside in the rain. It’s little wonder that twelve-year-old Mukhsin, whose mother has fled from his abusive father, and whose older brother has taken refuge in drunken hostility, comes to love Orked and her easygoing family. Gentler and in some ways more focused than Ahmad’s previous films about Orked and her parents, RABUN, SEPET (SFIFF 2005) and GUBRA (SFIFF 2006), Mukhsin portrays without melodrama the tender awkwardness of childhood friendship growing into first love. She also offers an affectionate, funny, occasionally critical portrait of Malay life and marriage, from a coach who seems to communicate only with gestures and blasts of a whistle, to an unhappily married neighborhood woman who sends her little girl over to relay spiteful comments to Orked. Adibah Noor reprises her role as Yam, the hefty, no-nonsense housekeeper in a household of free spirits, Mohd. Syafie bin Naswip gives an affecting, sometimes wistful performance as Mukhsin, and Sharifah Aryana Syed Zainal Rashid is a sharp and likeable Orked. Ahmad notes that Mukhsin was inspired by the poem “First Love” by Wislawa Szymborska: “In it, she wrote how the first love may not be as tempestuous or as passionate as later ones, but for some reason it’s the one that stays with you until the very end.” -courtesy of San Francisco International Film Festival

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