World Cinema Day showcases influential Chinese film

Wisconsin high school students and their teachers from across the state will have the opportunity to see an award-winning Chinese film when they participate in UW–Madison’s World Cinema Day on Friday, March 31.

Hundreds of students representing eight schools from Madison to Sparta will participate in UW–Madison’s third World Cinema Day. The event is an outreach program of the UW–Madison Language Institute, in partnership with the Arts Institute’s Wisconsin Film Festival.

During the brief welcome ceremony two students from James Madison Memorial High School will recite in Chinese two famous poems from the Tang Dynasty. Nicole Huang, professor in the department of East Asian languages and literature, will introduce the film and lead a discussion afterwards.

High school students will surely connect with the film, “Stolen Life,” as it “traces the journey of a teenage girl from her high school years to the beginning of her adult life,” says Huang. “A quintessentially urban film, this coming-to-consciousness tale juxtaposes personal ordeal with a rapidly changing urban landscape of contemporary China.”

UW–Madison’s screening of “Stolen Life” is part of a larger series, the Global Film Initiative’s “Global Lens,” which includes a total of eight international films. UW–Madison is one of 14 organizations and the only site in Wisconsin to take part in the Global Lens screenings.

Wisconsin Film Festival director Meg Hamel is pleased to work with the Language Institute to offer high school audiences stories that are not often seen on American movie screens. “Many people who have a lifelong interest in cinema can trace it back to a special film that they saw in their teens,” says Hamel. “It’s exciting to think that there are students in the World Cinema Day audience who will have that experience at the Wisconsin Film Festival.”

Catherine Reiland, coordinator of World Cinema Day comments that cinema, especially international cinema, “opens the world to the viewer.” “In a darkened theatre, students can hear the music of language, and see the topography of a country’s landscape. A place once unfamiliar and unknown suddenly becomes alive and very immediate.”

“World Cinema Day provides an opportunity, through the medium of film, to expose our students to different cultures – an opportunity not readily available in rural Wisconsin,” says Sparta Area Independent Learning School (SAILS) teacher Aric Soderbloom, who has participated in the event since its inception in 2004. “One of our curricular goals at SAILS is to develop greater cultural awareness in our students.”

“Stolen Life” will be screened at 12:45 p.m. at the Orpheum Theatre in Madison, with a discussion session immediately following. World Cinema Day 2006 is made possible with the generous support from The Global Film Initiative, Evjue Foundation, the Brittingham Fund, the Center for East Asian Studies, and the Schoenleber Fund.

The public is invited to see all of the “Global Lens” films as part of the Wisconsin Film Festival, March 30-April 2. Visit the Film Fest site for a schedule, ticket information or other details.

Participating high schools from Madison include: East High School, Edgewood High School, James Madison Memorial High School; SAPAR/Affiliated Alternatives

West High School. Other schools include Rufus King International Baccalaureate High School, Milwaukee; Mount Horeb High School; Sparta Area Independent Learning School.