JarJar Nixon's Blues Kitchen

Jon Hollander's BDC came to Korea in April. Cal shot this photo with a Nikon D300.

THEME: STATES OF INDEPENDENCE
The first decade of the 2000s has seen a stunning upsurge of independent
cinema in a number of Southeast Asian countries. This development has
been one of the motivations of the Annual Southeast Asian Cinemas
Conference (ASEACC), and this year we want to focus completely on the
issue of identity. We invite contributions that address the somewhat
contentious notion of "independent cinema" from different theoretical
and methodological angles. The concept of "independent cinema" means
something very different in the emerging countries of Southeast Asia
than in the US or Western Europe, and we want to tease out some of the
particular qualities of independent cinema in the region.

We want to ask what "independence" means in countries, where the
commercial film industry is slowly bleeding to death, but where the
distribution is often dominated by commercial chains that are rather
disinclined to show independent films. We are interested in papers about
the situation of independent distribution channels, be it "microcinemas"

in galleries, socio-cultural centers or peoples living rooms, or on the
Internet. We are looking for contributions that address the specific
aesthetics of independent films from the region. In particular, we
encourage papers that study the work of individual independent
filmmakers or analyse specific indie films. Finally, we will focus on
the situation in this years host country, the Philippines. As is our
tradition, filmmakers will participate in open forums and screen their
works.

NEW MEDIA
Another focus of this years conference will be the role of technology
and "new media" in the creation of an alternative "mediascape" in the
region. We invite papers that examine the influence of digital
technology on the film language that Southeast Asian film makers are
developing.

SOUTH EAST ASIA AND EUROPE
We are also encouraging contributions that engage with historic aspects
of dependence and independence, such as the colonial legacies of some
European countries in Southeast Asia or more contemporary
inter-dependencies between Europe and Southeast Asia (for example, the
policies of European film festivals, funding bodies or production
companies such as the Rotterdam Film Festival, the Hubert Bals Fund,
Fortissimo, etc).

OTHER TOPICS
- Alternative funding/distribution channels and bodies
- Issues of identity and representation in independent film
- Interdisciplinary approaches in alternative media production
- Independent film and the mainstream
- Festivals and grant-giving bodies
- The Local and the Global
- Independent film in the Philippines
5TH ANNUAL SOUTHEAST ASIAN CINEMAS CONFERENCE (ASEACC). STATES OF
INDEPENDENCE
WHEN: November 27  29, 2008
WHERE: Manila, The Philippines
Please send an abstract (max. 500 words) of your proposed paper to one
these members of the program committee of the confernce:
Dr. Rolando B. Tolentino: magpaubaya@yahoo.com Dr. Sophia Harvey:
sophfeline@earthlink.net Dr. Gaik Cheng Khoo: gaik.khoo@gmail.com Dr.
Tilman Baumgdrtel: mail@tilmanbaumgaertel.net
DEADLINE: May 21, 2008
We are currently attempting to get funding for travel subsidies and
accommodations but cannot offer any as yet. Prospective participants are
strongly encouraged to secure their own travel funding. We are also
trying to get discounted hotel and dorm rooms for conference
participants.
The conference will be accompanied by screenings of selected independent
films from Southeast Asia from November 25  26 and on November 30,
2009.
For more information on the conference visit our website:
www.asianfilmarchive.org/aseacc/

We stopped by the National Gallery of Art during our recent visit to DC.

The 2008 Charles B. Burdick Memorial Military History Symposium
takes place on Wednesday, April 30, at the Engineering Auditorium (ENG
189) at San Jose State University, from 6:30 - 9 p.m. Admission to the
event is free and open to the public.

Panelists: Al Conetto, who served for five months in Vietnam during
1965 as a First Lieutenant with both the First Cavalry Division and the
173rd Airborne Bridage. In 1967, he returned as a Captain in the First
Cavalry for 12 months, in the field, in logistics and in intelligence.
He became the briefing officer to the commander of the division. Mr.
Conetto has just completed a manuscript for a book on Operation Hump,
the first major American battle with the Vietcong, in which he fought.

Quang X. Pham, who is the son of the late Hoa Pham, a South
Vietnamese fighter pilot who rescued his family in the American
evacuation of April, 1975, but stayed behind because of A Sense of Duty
-- the title of his book published by Ballantine Books in 2005
(subtitle: My Father -- My American Journey). Lt. Col. Hoa Pham spent
twelve years in the reeducation camp prisons in Vietnam while his son
was growing up in the USA, making the decision in 1985 to join the U.S.
Marines. Quang X. Pham became the first Vietnamese American marine
aviator, serving in combat in Somalia.

Jerry Underdal joined International Voluntary Services (IVS), a
private organization supporting development in South Vietnam, in 1968.
He taught English for a year in Quang Nam province and spent a second
year on the Saigon staff of IVS as Assistant Team Leader for Education.
After the war, Mr. Underdal taught English to Vietnamese refugees and
was responsible for the first Vietnamese language program in Northern
California.

Moderator: Larry Engelmann, Emeritus Professor in the History Dept.
at SJSU, and author of Tears Before the Rain: An Oral History of the
Fall of South Vietnam published by Oxford University Press in 1990.

Welcoming remarks: Jonathan Roth, chair of the History Dept. at SJSU.

For further information contact Dr. Roth at 408-924-5505 or
jonathanroth@sjsu.edu
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

A booksigning by Mr. Pham and Mr. Engelmann will benefit the SJSU
History Dept. It is organized by Jean Libby, editor of VietAm Review

http://vietamreview.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2008/4/16/3641930.html

Back in the States for a week while Cal checks out GWU.

I've seen five movies in the past 30 hours:

Alvin and the Chipmunks
Sweeney Todd
Be Kind Rewind
The Counterfeiters
Last Year at Marienbad


I'm sure tonight in my jet-lagged dreams I am going to see a 20-minute remake of Theodore trying to shave a Nazi at an angst-ridden remote hotel...