THE UC BERKELEY ART MUSEUM AND PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE (BAM/PFA) RELEASES SCREENING SCHEDULE FOR CAAMFEST 2014; SPECIAL HIGHLIGHT ON TIBETAN FILMMAKING DUO RITU SARIN AND TENZING SONAM; BAM/PFA IS THE EXCLUSIVE EAST BAY FESTIVAL VENUE

A COPRESENTATION WITH THE CENTER FOR ASIAN AMERICAN MEDIA

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February 13, 2014, Berkeley, CA – The UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) is honored to host fourteen features as part of CAAMFest 2014. A presentation of the Center for Asian American Media, the annual festival brings moviegoers the best in contemporary cinema from Asia and the Asian diaspora. Beginning Friday, March 14 and continuing through Friday, March 21 at the PFA Theater, this thirty-second year of the festival features films and documentaries from Thailand, Singapore, Cambodia, India, Japan, Philippines, Nepal, India, South Korea, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

In conjunction with the festival's special highlight on filmmakers from the Himalayan nations, we devote an installment of our Committed Cinema series to Dharamshala-based filmmaking couple Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam, honoring their decades-long activism to regain Tibet's autonomy. Sarin and Sonam will be in attendance for the March 16 screening of The Sun Behind the Clouds (2009), which explores China's occupation of Tibet from the perspective of the vocally secessionist Tibetan youth, and their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. On March 20, the filmmaking duo, who met as graduate students in the East Bay, will be in conversation with Buddhist Film Foundation Executive Director Gaetano Kazuo Maida following a screening of Dreaming Lhasa (2005), about the state of exile and the issues of identity, culture and politics as they affect the Tibetan refugee community in India.

Other festival highlights include Thai director Banjong Pisanthanakun's ghostly yet hilarious send-up of horror movie conventions, Pee Mak (2013), on March 14; Jazz in Love (2013), a subtle, yet powerful portrait of gay love in the Philippines, screening on March 21; veteran Cambodian documentarian Rithy Panh's revelatory look at his childhood experiences surviving the Khmer Rouge, The Missing Picture, on March 18; Japan's Oscar-nominated The Great Passage, about a tongue-tied book salesman and his transformation upon being recruited to work on an ambitious dictionary project, screening March 16; Farah Goes Bang (2013), a riotous comedy by first-time director Meera Menon chronicling a coed's pursuit for her first sexual adventures on the campaign trail, on March 14; and Ilo Ilo (2013) about a silently suffering Filipino maid in Singapore (which received the Camera d'Or at Cannes and Best Picture nod at the Golden Horse Awards) on March 15.

Festival screenings will take place at the PFA Theater, located at 2575 Bancroft Way near Bowditch Street, on the southern edge of the UC Berkeley campus. General admission to the screenings is $12 per program. BAM/PFA and CAAM members, and UC Berkeley students are admitted for $10. Tickets for Non-UC Berkeley students, seniors, and disabled persons cost $11. Advance tickets for programs are available from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily at the BAM/PFA admissions desk, evenings at the PFA Theater Box Office, online at bampfa.berkeley.edu, or by telephone at (510) 642-5249. For information about screenings in San Francisco, or about purchasing tickets to BAM/PFA screenings in San Francisco, please visit the CAAMFest website at www.caamedia.org.

A full list of titles/dates/times for screenings at BAM/PFA, as well as anticipated special guest appearances, follows. For program notes on these screenings, please visit bampfa.berkeley.edu/film.

CAAMFest 2014 at BAM/PFA

Media Contact: Peter Cavagnaro: pacavagnaro@berkeley.edu or (510) 642-0365

The Pacific Film Archive Theater
2575 Bancroft Way near Bowditch Street
University of California, Berkeley
(510) 642-1412 / bampfa.berkeley.edu

A copresentation with the Center for Asian American Media

Friday, March 14
7:00 pm: Farah Goes Bang (U.S., 2013), Meera Menon
In person: Meera Menon
9:15 pm: Pee Mak (Thailand, 2013), Banjong Pisanthanakun

Saturday March 15
4:45 pm: Lordville (U.S., 2013), Rea Tajiri
In person Rea Tajiri
6:30 pm: Ilo Ilo (Singapore, 2013), Anthony Chen
In person: Anthony Chen
8:30 pm: Innocent Blood (U.S., 2013), D.J. Holloway, Sun Kim
In person: Trip Hope and Sun Kim

Sunday March 16
3:30 pm: The Great Passage (Japan, 2013), Yuya Ishii
6:10 pm: The Sun Behind the Clouds (India/U.K., 2012), Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam
In person: Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam
8:15 pm: The Way We Dance (Hong Kong, 2013), Adam Wong

Tuesday, March 18
7:00 pm: The Missing Picture (Cambodia/France, 2013), Rithy Panh

Wednesday March 19
7:00 pm: Bringing Tibet Home (U.S./Nepal/India/South Korea, 2013), Tenzin Tsetan Choklay
In person: Tenzin Tsetan Choklay
9:00 pm: Karaoke Girl (Thailand, 2012), Visra Vichit-Vadakan
In person: Visra Vichit-Vadakan

Thursday March 20
7:00 pm: Dreaming Lhasa (India/U.K., 2005), Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam
In conversation: Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam with Gaetano Kazuo Maida

Friday March 21
7:00 pm: Jazz in Love (Philippines, 2013), Baby Ruth Villarama
8:45 pm: Jadoo (U.K., 2013), Amit Gupta

General admission: $12; BAM/PFA and CAAM members, UC Berkeley students: $10 (limit two tickets per person per program); non-UC Berkeley students, seniors, disabled persons: $11 (limit one ticket per person per program)

About BAM/PFA
Founded in 1963, the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) is UC Berkeley's primary visual arts venue and among the largest university art museums in terms of size and audience in the United States. Internationally recognized for its art and film programming, BAM/PFA is a platform for cultural experiences that transform individuals, engage communities, and advance the local, national and global discourse on art and ideas. BAM/PFA's mission is “to inspire the imagination and ignite critical dialogue through art and film.”
BAM/PFA presents approximately fifteen art exhibitions and 380 film programs each year. The museum's collection of over 16,000 works of art includes important holdings of Neolithic Chinese ceramics, Ming and Qing Dynasty Chinese painting, Old Master works on paper, Italian Baroque painting, early American painting, Abstract Expressionist painting, contemporary photography, and video art. Its film archive of over 14,000 films and videos includes the largest collection of Japanese cinema outside of Japan, Hollywood classics, and silent film, as well hundreds of thousands of articles, reviews, posters, and other ephemera related to the history of film, many of which are digitally scanned and accessible online.

Support
Support for Committed Cinema has been provided by the National Endowment for the Arts. Special thanks to Stephen Gong and Masashi Niwano, CAAM, for bringing Sarin and Sonam to the Bay Area for a media residency.

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