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FULL STORY
The University of North Texas' UNT-International office will present free screenings of three films from Taiwanese director Ang Lee during the university's observance of 2009 International Education Week Nov. 16-20.
International Education Week, a joint initiative of the U.S. Departments of State and Education, celebrates the benefits of international education and exchange worldwide by promoting programs that prepare Americans for a global environment and attracts students from other nations to study in the United States and exchange experiences with U.S. students. The week was first observed in 2000.
The Ang Lee film festival is being presented by UNT-International with the support of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Houston, UNT's University Union, UNT's College of Arts and Sciences and the college's Department of Radio, Television and Film.
All three films will be shown at 7 p.m. in the Lyceum on the third level of UNT's University Union, which is located one block west of Welch and West Prairie streets. The films selected for the festival are all part of Lee's exploration of generational and cultural conflicts among Taiwanese parents and their Americanized children, and are in Mandarin with English subtitles.
The films and the dates that they will shown are:
Nov. 16 (Monday) -- Pushing Hands (Tui shou) -- In this 1992 release, a retired Chinese tai-chi master moves to Westchester, N.Y, to live with his son, his American daughter-in-law and his grandson. After the daughter-in-law develops severe writer's block for her second novel, brought on by her father-in-law's presence in the house, the son must struggle to keep his family together as he battles an inner conflict between cultural tradition and his modern American lifestyle.
Nov. 18 (Wednesday) -- The Wedding Banquet (Xi yan) -- In this 1993 release, a gay Taiwanese-American man living in Manhattan hides his sexuality from his parents, despite being in a happy, long-term relationship. When his parents pressure him to marry, he marries his tenant -- a young Chinese girl who needs to marry an American citizen to obtain her green card. Complications arise when the young man's parents arrive for the wedding and arrange a huge banquet to celebrate.
Nov. 21 (Saturday) -- Eat Drink Man Woman (Yin shi nan nu) -- Released in 1994, this film focuses on a senior master chef who lives in a large home in Taipei with his adult unmarried daughters -- a chemistry teacher, an airline executive and a student who works part time in a fast food restaurant. Life in the house revolves around the ritual of an elaborate dinner each Sunday and the love lives of all of the family members.
Eat Drink Man Woman will be followed by a panel discussion about Ang Lee's work. The panelists will be Dr. Harry Benshoff, UNT associate professor of radio, television and film; Dr. Kevin Heffernan, associate professor of cinema-television at Southern Methodist University and an adjunct faculty member in the UNT Department of Radio, Television and Film; and Dr. Don Staples, UNT professor emeritus of radio, television and film.
For more information, contact UNT-International at 940-565-2197.
The above text is based on a UNT News Service news release available on the web at http://web3.unt.edu/news/story.cfm?story=11628.
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