Venue: The British Council, Jalan Bukit Aman, KL
Because of a clash with a number of other film events running at around the same time, we have had to amend our original festival dates. It will now be held in two phases, the first from 1-3 Oct, and the second from 11-17 Oct. Below is the screening schedule for the first part.
[If you are unsure of joining the Kelab now, you could pay a deposit of RM30 to see all these films. If you do decide to join, the balance of the subscription must be paid at our next regular screening.]
Fri 1 Oct
6.30pm - The Greatest Heroes
Sat 2 Oct
Christine Choy Documentaries
10.30am - From Spikes to Spindles/Best Hotel on Skid Row
2.00pm - The Shot Heard Round the World
3.30pm - Panel Discussion: Issues of Ethnicity in Documentary Films
Panelists: Christine Choy, Dain Said
6.30pm - Mississippi Triangle
8.30pm - Who Killed Vincent Chin?
Sun 3 Oct
7.00pm - Carla's Song
The Greatest Heroes
Denmark, 1996, 90 min.; Thomas Vinterberg
Two unlikely heroes, convicted bank robber Karsten and pill-popping Peter, head for Sweden and adventure, taking with them Louise, Karsten's 12-year-old daughter, who is on the run from her violent stepfather. Karsten and Peter are determined to show Louise a good time and enjoy life while the chance is still there. En route, the relationship between Karsten and Louise grows, amidst a sense of doomed inevitability. Vinterberg's witty and touching film examines this relationship within the format of a road movie.
Carla's Song
UK, 1996, 127 min.; Ken Loach
Ken Loach's internationally successful film is a love story set against the volatile political background of Nicaragua. Robert Carlyle plays a Glaswegian bus driver who falls in love with a Nicaraguan refugee and takes her back to her country so that she can confront the ghosts of her past, and resolve her relationship with the mysterious Antonio.
Who Killed Vincent Chin?
US, 1988-89, 86 min.
Choy's best known film, an Academy Award nominee, made in collaboration with Renee Tajima. It focuses on the case -- initially a criminal case, later turning into a federal civil rights case - of Vincent Chin, who was mistaken for a Japanese and beaten to death outside a Detroit bar, and provides Choy an opportunmity to explore the relationship between ethnicity and the American Dream.
From Spikes to Spindles / Best Hotel on Skid Row
US, 1974/1990; 45/48 min.
This programme consists of two examples of Choy's dedication to providing a voice for marginalised people. Spikes is about Chinese American life in New York's Chinatown, tracing their history from the men who contributed to the vital cross-country railroad to the women who worked in garment factories. Best Hotel is a guided tour of the Madison Hotel on the seamier side of downtown Los Angeles, where drifters, addicts, prostitutes and the down-and-out carve out a life for themselves while trying their best to maintain their dignity.
Mississippi Triangle
US, 1984, 110 min.
A portrait of life on the Mississippi Delta, which is an amalgam of ethnicities, with whites, blacks and Asians living together in a not-quite-harmonious and precarious balance. This film is an intriguing study of America, at once an affirmation of the country as a racial melting pot and an argument against it.
The Shot Heard Round the World
US, 1997, 75 min.
Yoshi Hattori, a teenage Japanese exchange student, was fatally shot by homeowner Rodney Peairs on 17 October 1992 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Hattori and a friend were looking for a Halloween party when they mistakenly walked up to the Peairs residence and set into motion the chain of events that led to the shooting. Choy outlines the critical details of the criminal and civil trials surrounding Hattori's murder by using news footage, videotape depositions and interviews with the attorneys and participants involved.
