Film Screening--"Luo Village: Me and Ren Dingqi" (Luo Bing, 2010, 80 min, China, Chinese with English subtitles, DVD) -- Luo Bing is a Beijing-based artist who returned to his ancestral village in Hunan Province to interview his grandparent's generation about the darkest, most brutal years of the Cultural Revolution. While Luo's exploration of the so-called "famine years", the period of widespread starvation from 1958 to 1961 that accompanied Mao's "Great Leap Forward" is often wrenchingly sad, his camera does not neglect the humor and irony of village life. The community in Luo Village is presented as one largely without bitterness, where a certain acknowledgement of their shared, albeit harrowing past allows the village elders to connect with one-another, and also with the young man holding the camera. Throughout his process, Luo searches for an elusive memoir written by his neighbor, Ren Dinqi, which is rumored to spare no detail in spelling out the days of Grandpa Ren's life from unbearable suffering to redemption. -- Part of the Cine-East/Memory Project Series: Four Chinese film directors present their work exploring elder villagers' memories of the "3-Year Famine" (1959-1961) -- There will be an opening reception at 6:30 with the Memory Project filmmakers in attendance.
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