EUGENE,
Ore. -- (April 5, 2011) -- Cinema
Pacific, a University of Oregon film festival celebrating cinema from
Pacific-bordering countries, will provide participants and attendees an
opportunity to boost their film knowledge from April 6 to April 10. In addition
to more than 20 film screenings, Cinema Pacific, in conjunction with the
University of Oregon Cinema Studies
program, Academic Extension
and Arts and Administration, is inside
the classrooms of three courses for academic credit.
Cinema
Pacific Festival Fellow Shelley Kraicer, a Beijing-based film critic and
programmer of East Asian films for the Vancouver film festival, will teach a
course, "Chinese Independent Film: From the Sixth to the Digital Generation,"
with UO English professor David Li. Students will attend screenings and guest
lectures and watch additional content online.
The course is part of the curriculum
for the UO's cinema studies major, introduced in 2010. The emphasis on international cinema,
film and video production distinguishes the UO's program from similar majors at
other institutions in the Pacific Northwest and Northern California.
In addition to the new cinema studies
program, the film festival organizers work closely with faculty in Asian
Studies, Media Management and other
programs.
"Faculty from many academic
departments advise me on film selections and conduct audience discussions,
making the festival an enlightening experience for a large audience both within
and beyond the university," said Richard Herskowitz, director,
Cinema Pacific.
Herskowitz teaches two courses
that originate from the festival. During winter and spring terms, students in
Arts and Administration take on key festival roles as part of Herskowitz's course, "Film
Festival Operations." In addition, students in the English department course "Seminar on Film Festivals"
go behind the scenes of Cinema Pacific and the DisOrient Film Festival and also
learn about the larger film festival circuit, including the Sundance and Cannes
film festivals that have reshaped film culture.
Herskowitz
has served as director of the Virginia Film Festival and the Cornell Cinema
program, and as a trustee and president of the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar. He
also served as curator of Cinema Arts Festival Houston before joining the UO
and starting Cinema Pacific film festival last year.
Getting students involved in
film production is the objective of the Adrenaline
Film Project, a 72-hour film production workshop within the festival, where
students write, pitch, shoot and edit a film under the direction of expert
mentors in the film industry. Students and community members are invited to
screen the finished products on April 9 in Columbia Hall 150 on campus. Last
year, 12 teams competed and gained valuable real-world experience.
"The
adrenaline really does kick in," said Tomas Valladares, Adrenaline
coordinator and UO graduate student. "You have 72 hours to go through the whole
filmmaking process. It's really a crash course in Hollywood-style
filmmaking."
MEDIA
CONTACTS: Hana
Katen, Allen Hall Public Relations, 503-799-8968, hkaten@uoregon.edu; Richard Herskowitz, Cinema Pacific Film
Festival, 541-729-4516; Julie Brown, UO media relations, 541-346-3185, julbrown@uoregon.edu
LINKS: Cinema Pacific: http://cinemapacific.uoregon.edu;
Cinema Pacific Course Offerings: http://cinemapacific.uoregon.edu/courses
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