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*CREAM screening seminar series: * Polyphonic China - Chinese new independent documentaries<http://www.wmin.ac.uk/mad/page-569> *The third session*: Tuesday 10th March 2009, 6pm ¨C 9 pm. Venue: Lecture Theatre 1 & 2 Regent Campus, University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London W1B 2UW Screening: *Though I Am Gone* (ÎÒËäËÀÈ¥)( dir. Hu Jie. 2006. 66mins. with *ENGLISH subtitles)* With a talk by Harriet Evans. Professor, Chinese Cultural Studie, Co-ordinator, Asian Studies Research, University of Westminster ¡°This film about the death of Bian Zhongyun, a vice-principal of a girls¡¯ middle school in Beijing and the first person to be murdered by the Red Guards in the Cultural Revolution, is a powerful and disturbing testimony of a politics of violence and terror. It is also an individual¡¯s testimony of traumatic loss and his attempts to come to terms with this through recording the history of his wife¡¯s death. Bian¡¯s death was followed by the death, torture and persecution of countless others. Yet today, after more than half a century, critical analysis and public discussion of the Cultural Revolution is still suppressed by China¡¯s leadership. The generation responsible for and victimized by the Cultural Revolution is thus denied the opportunity to begin to heal the wounds that Bian¡¯s widowed husband, Wang Jingyao, hid for so long. A deliberately fostered collective amnesia also removes younger generations from their own history and thus from an understanding of their present. In *Though I Am Gone, *Hu Jie brings together time, memory and loss in a film that is an important historical document. Just as significantly, however, Hu Jie¡¯s documentary approach suggests the power of film to create a space for personal and public memory in which suffering, trauma and loss can be properly acknowledged. Hu Jie and Wang Jingyao thus emerge as advocates for the public recognition of historical truth, to dignify the lives of those who experienced it, to empower its survivors, and to equip its inheritors to reject the silences of contemporary political culture.¡± ---- Harriet Evans If you could contact me at [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>to indicate your attendance to help us keep check on numbers, it would be much appreciated. We are* *Looking forward to seeing you there! Best wishes, Tianqi Yu Ph.D candidate Research Assistant of Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media The School of Media, Arts and Design University of Westminster Watford Rd, Northwick Park Middlesex HA1 3TP Screening-seminars: Chinese new independent documentaries - UK Premiere!<http://www.wmin.ac.uk/mad/page-569> Wallflower Press ¨Cbooks on Chinese cinema: *New Chinese Cinema: Challenging Representations*<http://www.wallflowerpress.co.uk/product/short-cuts/11-new-chinese-cinema> *International Film Guide*<http://www.wallflowerpress.co.uk/product/international-film-guide/international-film-guide-2009-45th-edition>