Explore This Month's E-Resources - School of Film and Television: October 2023

Directed by Zhou Hao, Produced by Zhao Qi (California: Zhao Qi Films, 2015-01-26), 1 hour 26 minutes

Once the thriving capital of Imperial China, the city of Datong now lies in near ruins. Not only is it the most polluted city in the country, it is also crippled by decrepit infrastructure and even shakier economic prospects. But Mayor Geng Tanbo plans to change all that, announcing a bold, new plan to return Datong to its former glory, the cultural haven it was some 1,600 years ago. Such declarations, however, come at a devastatingly high cost. Thousands of homes are to be bulldozed, and a half-million of its residents (30 percent of Datong's total population) will be relocated under his watch. Whether he succeeds depends entirely on his ability to calm swarms of furious workers and an increasingly perturbed ruling elite. The Chinese Mayor captures, with remarkable access, a man and, by extension, a country leaping frantically into an increasingly unstable future.

Directed by Jakob Gottschau, Narrated by Brian Patterson, Produced by Jakob Gottschau (Alexandria, VA: Filmakers Library, 2013), 28 minutes

A half hour documentary about social media in China. With more than a half billion people online - China is the world's largest Internet nation. And on Weibo - the Chinese answer to Facebook and Twitter, the Chinese manifests themselves more sharp and critical than ever before. Embark on a travel in the digital China and meet some of the most controversial bloggers, and see what is possible to write and upload from a Weibo account before the Chinese censorship shut it down.

Directed by David B. Marshall, Produced by David B. Marshall (Blue Sky Project Films, 2014), 59 minutes

Emma and Ernie ate lemon meringue pie together. Ernie taught Emma about life. And Emma helped Ernie to die. In 2002, a high school teacher in Rochester, NY, invited nine high school seniors to attend his new class. The name of the class: Hospice. A decade later, the program continues with student volunteers learning about and providing comfort care for the dying and their families. The film follows the real-life stories of four student volunteers through their senior year. In the quest to understand “the big sleep,” they find a whole new kind of awakening.

Directed by Michael Camerini, Shari Robertson, Produced by Epidavros Project (New York, NY: Epidavros Project, 2015), 1 hour 55 minutes

Why has it been so hard for Washington to fix America's broken immigration system?Go behind closed doors in Washington's corridors of power to explore the political realities surrounding one of the country's most pressing and divisive issues.

Directed by Jane Weiner, Narrated by Jane Weiner, Produced by Jane Weiner, JDB Films, Striana Productions (JDB Films, 2015), 1 hour

The title, La Camera Passe-Partout, inspired by an article written by Leacock for Cahiers du Cinema in April 1959 wherein he, at this very early stage of the development of a 'new kind of cinema', begins to articulate his aesthetic ambition and artistic aspiration as a filmmaker. Weiner's camera enters the world of American Direct Cinema through 35 years of conversations with Leacock and four others—D.A. Pennebaker, Bob Drew, Terry Macartney Filgate and Al Maysles. In La Camera Passe-Partout, we discover how these five cineastes came together at an incredibly dynamic and defining moment of observational documentary filmmaking.