February 16, Saturday
Volver
3:00 and 8:00 P.M., Dana Auditorium
Spirits of the dead aid the living in this latest hit by director Pedro Almodóvar (All About My Mother, Talk to Her, Bad Education), an intricately plotted comedy about the undying bonds of family. Raimunda (Penélope Cruz) faces a crisis with the untimely death of her aunt and her husband. With the help of her loyal sister and her dead mother’s ghost, Raimunda shelters her daughter and discovers a deeply entrenched family secret that changes her life. “Wise, luxuriant humanism.” — A.O. Scott, The New York Times. (Spain, 2006, 121 minutes) Free
SOAN 0103 Selected Topics in Sociocultural Anthropology
SPAN 0103 Beginning Spanish III
SPAN 0210 Intermediate Spanish I
SPAN 0220 Intermediate Spanish II
SPAN 0304 Ideas and Cultures of Spain
SPAN 0315 Hispanic Film
WAGS 0200 Foundations in Women's and Gender Studies
WAGS/SOAN 0304 Women, Culture and Power in Comparative Perspective
March 8, Saturday
4 (Chetyre)
3:00 and 8:00 P.M., Dana Auditorium
Director Ilya Khrjanovsky’s unique and disturbing film 4 (Chetyre) is an apocalyptic journey through the dark heart of the new Russia. Three strangers meet in a Moscow bar and spin fantastic stories, all of them lies. They go their separate ways through a landscape filled with modern industrial horrors. The film was held up by Russian censors who wanted 40 minutes cut, but relented after the film won acclaim at film festivals around the world. In Russian with English subtitles. (Russia, 2005, 126 minutes) Free
RUSS 0103 Beginning Russian
RUSS 0202 Intermediate Russian
RUSS 0152 Russian Literature's "Bloody Age": Twentieth-Century Literature and Society
RUSS 0312 Russian Culture and Civilization II
March 15, Saturday
Pan’s Labyrinth
3:00 and 8:00 P.M., Dana Auditorium
An imaginative young girl discovers an ancient labyrinth and embarks on a fantasy journey to immortality. Set in post-Civil War Spain, this Academy award-winning, adult-oriented fairy tale from director Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, The Devil’s Backbone) is “an uncanny blend of gorgeous flights of the imagination and blood-curdling moments of brutality…so moving, heartbreaking, and wonderfully haunting, you sigh when the end credits roll.”—Phil Villarreal, Arizona Daily Star. In Spanish with English subtitles.(Mexico/Spain, 2006, 112 minutes) Free
SPAN 0103 Beginning Spanish III
SPAN 0210 Intermediate Spanish I
SPAN 0220 Intermediate Spanish II
SPAN 0304 Ideas and Cultures of Spain
SPAN 0315 Hispanic Film
April 3, Thursday (ongoing)
Wafting on a Heavenly Breeze: Hand-Painted Kites from China
Mahaney Center for the Arts, Upper and Lower Lobbies
A plethora of dragons, phoenixes, snakes, bats, and mythical figures fill the sky in this exhibition of hand-crafted kites using traditional materials—bamboo, paper, and silk. The majority of these kites come from Weifang, the birthplace of kite making. Free
ART 0160 Studio Art II: Sculpture, Painting, Video
ART 0320 Volume, Scale and Concept in Sculpture
ART 0332 Special Topics in Studio Art: Beyond the Silk Screen
CHNS 0103 Beginning Chinese
CHNS 0202 Intermediate Chinese
CHNS 0475 Senior Seminar on Modern Chinese Literature Xu
HARC 0103 Introduction to Asian Art
HIST 0232 Modern China
April 5, Saturday
The House of Sand
3:00 and 8:00 P.M., Dana Auditorium
In 1910 Brazil, Vasco de Sá moves with his pregnant wife Áurea and her mother Maria from the city to the shifting dunes of the Maranhão desert. Shortly after their arrival, Vasco dies, leaving the women alone and without resources. Filmed entirely on location in northern Brazil, The House of Sand illustrates how three generations of women survive and adapt in a hostile environment. “sensual, dreamlike, both intimate and epic”—Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer. In Portuguese with English subtitles. (Brazil, 2005, 98 minutes) Free
PGSE 0103 Beginning Portuguese III
PGSE 0202 Intermediate Portuguese II
WAGS 0200 Foundations in Women's and Gender Studies
WAGS/SOAN 0304 Women, Culture and Power in Comparative Perspective
April 12, Saturday
Iraq in Fragments
3:00 and 8:00 P.M., Dana Auditorium
Director James Longley (Gaza Strip) surveys war-torn Iraq in three acts, building a picture of a country pulled in different directions by religious and ethnic rivalries. Filmed in verité style with no scripted narration, the film explores the lives of ordinary Iraqis in three regions, trying to survive in a land consumed by violence. “Visually arresting and deeply disheartening.”—Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News. Best Documentary, Sundance Film Festival, International Documentary Association, Chicago Film Festival. In Arabic and Kurdish with English subtitles. (Iraq, 2006, 94 minutes) Free
ARBC 0103 Beginning Arabic III
ARBC 0202 Intermediate Arabic II
ARBC 0302 Advanced Arabic II
HIST 0109 History of Islam and the Middle East, Since 1453
HIST 0262 History of the Modern Middle East
PHIL 0208 Morality & War
PSCI 0405 Causes of War
PSCI 0450 Ethnic Conflict
April 19, Saturday
The Namesake
3:00 and 8:00 P.M., Dana Auditorium
An aspiring engineer and his new wife move to New York from Calcutta in the late 1970s, and their American-born son grows up at the intersection of American culture and his family’s traditional Indian ways. In portraying the personal conflicts of globalization, director Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding, Salaam Bombay!) creates a winning, intimate film about the strength of family and the clash of cultures. “Brims with intelligence, compassion and sensuous delight in the textures, sights and sounds of life—all the way from the Taj Mahal to Pearl Jam.”—Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune. In Bengali, Hindi, and English with subtitles. (India/USA, 2006, 122 minutes) Free
HIST 0414 Readings in the History of India: Gandhi and the Independence of India
RELI 0140 Hindu Traditions of India
SOAN 0103 Selected Topics in Sociocultural Anthropology
April 26, Saturday
Still Life
3:00 and 8:00 P.M., Dana Auditorium
Coal miner Han Sanming returns to the Three Gorges to search for his ex-wife, whom he has not seen for 16 years. They meet on the bank of the Yangtze River and vow to remarry. Nurse Shen Hong looks for her long-missing husband, and though they embrace and waltz near the Yangtze—by the imposing Three Gorges Dam—they cannot bridge their years of separation. In this gorgeously crafted film, director Jia Zhang Ke (The World, Platform) uses cinematography to echo the characters’ desire to linger in the past and see the world maintain its beauty, despite the inexorable pull of change. Golden Lion, Venice Film Festival. In Mandarin with English subtitles. (China, 2006, 108 minutes) Free
CHNS 0103 Beginning Chinese
CHNS 0202 Intermediate Chinese
CHNS 0475 Senior Seminar on Modern Chinese Literature
HIST 0232 Modern China