Film Review: I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO

I am Not Your Negro uses James Baldwin’s notes to hold a conversation between Medgar Evans, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X, a conversation between the future and the past, a conversation between those who are citizens and those who are wards of this state. Through James Baldwin, this film holds space for black folks and demands that white folks recognize their responsibility in perpetuating racism. The film artfully splices images of the present, the militant response to protests in Ferguson, with images of the past, state sanctioned white attacks on black protesters.

Make sure to clear your schedule after watching this film to reflect on and confront your emotional response!

MLK TRIBUTE WEEKEND

We are commemorating Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King a little late with two great films!

Loving (Friday 1/27) 

The story of Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple, whose challenge of their anti-miscegenation arrest for their marriage in Virginia led to a legal battle that would end at the US Supreme Court.

 

Dear White People (Saturday 1/28)

How do Black students survive an elite Ivy League institution that wasn’t made for them? This satirical comedy follows four black students in the midst of a BSU election who do just that.

 

Both films will be screened in Thomas 224. Hope to see you there!

Miciah Foster

BMC’19

Film Series Committee

Volunteering at the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival

This weekend, the Film Series and Asian American Students Association at Bryn Mawr College teamed up to volunteer at the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival (PAAFF)!! Located at the Asian Arts Initiative, the festival featured shorts, food demos, and an art exhibit. Over the span of the final weekend of the film festival (11/18-11/19), around 15 Bryn Mawr students covered four different volunteer shifts. At the film festival, we helped usher and take audience as well as collect and count ballots. One perk of volunteering at the festival was that we were able to watch some of the films!

Film Series members Eda '19, Co-Head Kristal '17, and Kellie '19 volunteering at the Asian American Film Festival

Film Series members Eda ’19, Co-Head Kristal ’17, and Kellie ’19 volunteering at the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival!!

One of my favorite films that I saw while volunteering at the festival was the documentary Forever Chinatown. The film tells the story of Frank Wong, an 81-year-old self-taught artist who creates miniature models from his childhood memory of San Francisco Chinatown. His miniatures capture the images of an evolving Chinatown of the 40s during a time of discrimination and rapid change. In sweeping takes of Wong’s miniatures and clips from films of the 40s, the film recreates a sense of a time lived long ago.

Another film that I really loved from the festival was Painted Nails a documentary that follows Van Hoang, a Vietnamese immigrant and nail salon owner. At the time being pregnant, Hoang advocates for safer cosmetics and working conditions for nail salon workers after having two miscarriages as the result of the toxic chemicals in nail products she uses at her salon. She goes on to testify in Washington, DC in front of Congress for the Safe Cosmetics and Personal Care Products Act and ends up giving birth a healthy baby!

Students from ASA and Filmmakers Association volunteering at the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival!!

Students from ASA and Filmmakers Association volunteering at the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival!!

Overall, volunteering at the Asian American Film Festival was really fun as we got to watch really amazing movies, meet cool people, and speak to actors and directors! We hope to continue volunteering with the Philadelphia Asian American Film and Filmmakers as well as with other film festivals in the future!

Marvel vs. DC Film Screening Event

This semester, for our big film screening event, we decided to have Marvel vs. DC (11/11-11/12) theme film screenings to go along with the dining hall special dinner of the same theme! Usually, Film Series has one large screening a semester but we decided to double it up this semester since we co-hosted one film a week for this quarter. We showed Captain America: Civil War and Suicide Squad with raffles, pizza, Insomnia cookies, and a superhero themed photo booth for people to takes pictures at!

Film Series members Kellie '19, Co-heads Kristal '17 and Isabella '17, and Heather '19 at the Suicide Squad screening!

Film Series members Kellie ’19, Co-Heads Kristal ’17 and Isabella ’18, and Heather ’19 at the Suicide Squad screening!

Both of the film screens for Captain America: Civil War and Suicide Squad had a great turn out! Can’t wait for next semester’s screenings!!

Movie Review: The Handmaiden

For a brief time, the Bryn Mawr Film Institute was showing The Handmaiden (2016) by (one of my favorite directors) Park Chan-wook, who is known for Oldboy (2003)! Based on the novel Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, the film is set in 1930s Korea, during Japanese colonial rule. Structured in three parts, the film revolves around the deception of different characters and Japanese eroticism.

The story begins when Sookee, a young Korean pickpocket, is recruited by Count Fujiwara, a Korean conman, to be Lady Hideko’s handmaiden and persuade Lady Hideko to marry the Count for her fortune. A Japanese heiress, Lady Hideko’s money is controlled by her uncle Kouzuki, who plans to marry her when she is of age in order to gain her fortune and her body. However, with the three part structure, the film becomes more complex as each part reveals a different perspective and deception as Sookee and Lady Hideko become romantically involved.

Promotional photo of The Handmaiden (2016)

Promotional photo of The Handmaiden (2016)

Much like the other films from director Park Chan-wook, the film The Handmaiden follows the auteur’s style of violence combined with a disturbing plot and paired with beautiful shots and sets. The most disturbing element in the film is the use of female eroticism. Throughout The Handmaiden, the body of Lady Hideko is seen as a space that men can manipulate through marriage as well as through readings of erotic Japanese literature. While the director highlights the folly of the grotesque nature of heterosexual men’s obsession with the female body, mainly through the portrayal of Uncle Kouzuki, the film also allows Lady Hideko to escape the erotics projected on to her through her relationship with Sookee. The lesbian relationship allows Lady Hideko to subvert the male obsession with the female body as no man within the film actually got to claim her body through sex. Yet, as the two woman escape the imposition of an erotic gaze, the film ends with a sex scene between Sookee and Lady Hideko that reflects some of the same erotic images of lesbian sex seen in the Japanese erotic literature Lady Hideko is forced to read.

In The Handmaiden as with other films by Park Chan-wook, the ending of the film is not an ending but a complex continuation of the issues addressed in the film. The viewer leaves the film disturbed, intrigued, and contemplative as the film persuades the audience to think more about what they just saw.

Marvel vs DC Movie Weekend

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This Weekend’s Lineup

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We have two great films this weekend! 

Wall-E (Friday 11/4) with the Zero Waste Club

In the distant future, a small waste-collecting robot inadvertently embarks on a space journey that will ultimately decide the fate of mankind.

Nerve (Saturday 11/5) 

A high school senior finds herself immersed in an online game of truth or dare, where her every move starts to become manipulated by an anonymous community of “watchers.”

Hope to see you there! 

Best, 

Miciah Foster 

BMC ’19 

Super Spooky Weekend

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Bryn Mawr Film series presents two seriously spooky films (one more so than the other) for Halloween!

Film Series & ASA Volunteer at the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival!!

f7i5Ct9IFilm Series and ASA will be volunteering at the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival! If you are interested in volunteering for the, please fill out this sign up sheet. We will be ushering, handing out programs, and will possibly get the chance to watch films! Transportation and meals will be provided but there are a limited amount of people needed per shift so they will be assigned on a first come first serve basis.

Link to sign ups: https://goo.gl/forms/DZeuHQwqHKEtQEv63

Queer Movie Weekend

BMC Film Series is back and this time, with friends.  be co-hosting with Spectra, Rainbow Alliance, and Zami this weekend to bring you two awesome LGBT centered films! 

But I’m A Cheerleader (Friday, 10/21)

New Location: Dalton 2

A naive cheerleader is sent to rehab camp when her straitlaced parents and friends suspect her of being a lesbian.

But I’m a Cheerleader is a 1999 American satirical romantic comedy film directed by Jamie Babbit and written by Brian Wayne Peterson. Natasha Lyonne stars as…

The Wedding Banquet (Saturday, 10,22) 

Old Location: Thomas 224 

To satisfy his nagging parents, a gay landlord and a female tenant agree to a marriage of convenience, but his parents arrive to visit and things get out of hand.