In October 2023, Northwestern Department of Asian Languages and Cultures Professor Licheng Gu was at AMC Newcity 14 for a movie. The renowned Chicagoland film festival Asian Pop-up Cinema was celebrating the closing night of its season, with the South Korean musical-comedy-thriller Killing Romance (2023). Both its star, the late Lee Sun-kyun, and its director, Lee Won Suk, were in attendance for an intro and Q&A.
It was a lively, exciting event—and Gu was surprised not to see any familiar faces in the audience.
“I looked around, I couldn’t find any Northwestern colleagues, no students and no colleagues who teach movies or teach Korean literature,” he said. “So I’m thinking, well, maybe if we couldn’t go to those movies, maybe we should bring those movies to our campus.”
He understood the lack of Northwestern-affiliated attendees. While the department is aware of Asian Pop-up Cinema’s programming pop-up screenings across the Chicagoland area are often far enough from campus that the distance can be prohibitive.
So along with Professor and Co-Director of the Weinberg Language Resource Center Noriko Taira, Gu connected with The Block to bring Asian Pop-up Cinema directly to campus. Together the partners worked to not only invite the annual Asian film festival to campus but also to keep the events free and open to all.
The resulting program, Asian Pop-up Cinema at The Block, will present four films from April 3rd to April 11th, one for each culture represented by the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures. Through the combined support of The Block, Buffett Institute for Global Affairs, WCAS Language Resource Center, the Council on Language Instruction, and the Simeon Leland Forum tickets will be free with RSVP.
“The Block Museum is delighted to support and welcome an accomplished local festival as it brings a range of new works that showcase emerging filmmakers from Japan, India, South Korea, and China to Northwestern’s campus and the greater Evanston community,” said Malia Haines-Stewart, Block Cinema Associate Film Programmer.
The films presented are: My Favorite Love Story (Lee Won-Hoi, 2023), a whimsical sci-fi-musical-romance about a pair of nearly human robots in a near-future Seoul, Drifting Flowers, Flowing Days (Yutaka Tsunemachi, 2022), about a trio of friends drifting through life in contemporary Japan, Shankar’s Fairies (Irfana Majumdar, 2021), a tale of unlikely friendship in 1962 India, and The Coffin Painter (Da Fei, 2021), a story of cross-generational bonding between the titular Chinese craftsman and a middle school girl who has moved to his neighborhood.
The four films have played and received accolades at international film festivals. The Coffin Painter was nominated for the Tokyo International Film Festival’s Asian Future Best Film Award. Drifting Flowers, Flowing Days received a Best Actress award for Kaho Seto’s performance at the Moscow International Film Festival. Shankar’s Fairies was a selection of the 57th edition of the Chicago International Film Festival.
Taira and Gu worked with Asian Pop-up Cinema and The Block to bring the films to campus, but they let Asian Pop-up Cinema oversee the programming.
Asian Pop-up Cinema founder and Executive Director Sophia Wong Boccio said she chose films that would speak to a college student audience, while also relaying the global perspectives of their cultures of origin.
“These are contemporary Asian films that tell modern stories,” Boccio said. “Every one is quite relevant.”
Taira said the films will educate and engage students who come to the screenings.
In addition to bringing the films to Northwestern, Asian Pop-up Cinema also worked to bring two of the filmmakers for conversations at The Block and in campus classrooms.
Filmmakers will be present for Thursday, April 4th‘s presentation of Drifting Flowers, Flowing Days and Wednesday, April 10th‘s presentation of Shankar’s Fairies alongside Columbia College Associate Professor Ron Falzone. Falzone will also introduce the screenings of My Favorite Love Story and The Coffin Painter.
“Many of these films deal with characters undergoing transformative experiences–some made by first-time filmmakers who will be in person for screenings. We are particularly looking forward to seeing how Northwestern’s student community engages with the offerings of Asian Pop-Up Cinema at The Block this year,” Haines-Stewart said.
In the classroom, filmmakers will focus on their development and filmmaking processes. Drifting Flowers, Flowing Days director Yutaka Tsunemachi’s classroom visit will feature a screening of some of his short films.
“I think the most important part is that our students can actually have the directors in their classrooms and meet and talk with those directors and hear in person what their visions are, and about their techniques and thought processes,” Gu said.
Boccio said The Block felt like an ideal place for Asian Pop-up Cinema to show films on Northwestern’s campus because it unifies Evanston’s student and non-student communities.
Gu said he hopes the collaboration can be the beginning of a partnership to continue bringing Asian cinema to the Northwestern and Evanston communities.
“I believe that we should bring Northwestern to the world and the world to Northwestern,” he said.
