EUGENE, Ore. – (April 3, 2013) – The fourth annual University of Oregon Cinema Pacific Film Festival is extending its reach to Portland.

The festival will cosponsor two programs at Portland’s Northwest Film Center – a film by Mexican screenwriter and director Guillermo Arriaga and a film that inspired an art installation by Singaporean artist Ming Wong. The installation by Wong will be featured at the UO-Portland's White Box.

Cinema Pacific will also bring two Portland features, “Alien Boy” and “Buoy,” to Eugene.

The film festival features a wide array of films, exhibitions, receptions and performances, beginning April 16 and running through April 21, in both Eugene and Portland.

A public reception for Wong’s White Box exhibition, Arriaga and Cinema Pacific’s featured Portland artists will be from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 16, at the White Box, 24 NW 1st Ave., Portland.

"Focus: Mexico" featuring Guillermo Arriaga

This year’s featured guest is Arriaga, who will participate in the festival’s "Focus: Mexico" section. Arriaga is renowned for his nonlinear narratives that connect characters across national borders. He is most noted for his trilogy of screenplays, “Amores Perros”, “21 Grams” and “Babel,” directed by Alejandro Inarritu.

This visit to Oregon marks a return for Arriaga, who directed the “The Burning Plain” in Portland and Coos Bay in 2008. The film featured Academy Award-winner Jennifer Lawrence in her first starring role, alongside Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger.

Arriaga will present “The Burning Plain” at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 16, in the Northwest Film Center/Portland Art Museum’s Whitsell Auditorium, before heading to Eugene, where he will present a series of talks and screenings. 

See http://cinemapacific.uoregon.edu/2013/highlights/mexico for more information about Arriaga’s visit and other Mexican film programs in this year’s Cinema Pacific festival.

"Focus: Singapore" and more Asian cinema

The festival’s "Focus: Singapore" section will continue the festival’s ongoing exploration of Asian Pacific cinemas. See http://cinemapacific.uoregon.edu/2013/highlights/singapore for full details on Cinema Pacific’s Singaporean programs.

In conjunction with Cinema Pacific, the UO's Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art in Eugene and the White Box in Portland will feature media installations by Wong. The dual venue exhibition, “Emotion Pictures,” includes a live Skype performance by Wong at 2 p.m. on Sunday, April 21, in the JSMA and the White Box.

The Gray Box Media Space, just outside of the White Box, will show “Life of Imitation,” a looped 13-minute, double-channel installation. Originally commissioned for the 53rd Venice Biennale Singapore Pavilion, the work is inspired by Douglas Sirk’s classic Hollywood melodrama “Imitation of Life,” in which a black mother meets her mixed-race daughter, who has been running away from her true “identity.” “Life of Imitation” features three male actors from the main ethnic groups in Singapore (Chinese, Malay and Indian) taking turns playing the black mother and her “white” daughter. The identity of the actor for each role constantly changes with each shot. The installation is on view April 4 through May 4.

Wong’s artist talk and live performance via Skype on April 21 will be followed by a screening of the original “Imitation of Life” at 4 p.m. at the Northwest Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium.

Portland on Screen

The Best of the Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival will include the audience prize-winner for best feature, Steve Doughton’s “Buoy,” plus two short films by Portland filmmaker Orland Nutt on Friday, April 19, at the Bijou Art Cinemas in Eugene. Doughton will attend the screening.

Portland director Brian Lindstrom will also attend two screenings of his film, “Alien Boy: The Life and Death of James Chasse,” on Saturday, April 20, at the Bijou. “Alien Boy” investigates the fatal police beating of James Chasse, a Portlander with a history of mental illness.

Ticket information
Tickets for all Eugene shows are available online through April 16 at cinemapacific.uoregon.edu/schedule and through the UO Ticket Office, 541-346-4363, located in the Erb Memorial Union on campus. For Portland events at the NW Film Center, tickets are on sale at the door and online at nwfilm.org/screenings.

MEDIA CONTACT: Aria Seligmann, UO Communications, 541-543-1482, arias@uoregon.edu

SOURCE: Richard Herskowitz, Cinema Pacific Film Festival, 541-729-4516, rhersk@uoregon.edu

LINK: For photos and more details, http://cinemapacific.uoregon.edu/press