1428
(Du Haibin, 2009, 116 min, China, in Mandarin w/ English subtitles, Color, DVD)

Introduced by Prof. Ralph Litzinger, Dept. of Cultural Anthropology!

On May 12, 2008, a massive earthquake hit China's Sichuan province; powerful enough that the shock waves were felt over a thousand miles away, the earthquake claimed the lives of more than 68,000 people. While the disaster was a major news story for weeks afterwards, filmmaker Du Haibin offers a look at the aftermath of the quake, focusing on the human costs of the quake often ignored by the media, in this documentary. 1428 shows visits from government functionaries who have little to offer families searching for lost relatives. A monk offers his opinions on the event, believing it was the act of a god who was tired of being ignored. People scavenge abandoned pig farms for food and junkyards for scrap metal in their efforts to stay alive. And as many parts of Sichuan province still remain a shambles months after the disaster, winter comes, adding insult to injury. 1428 - the title comes from the moment the earthquake hit, recorded in military time - was an official selection at the 2009 Venice International Film Festival, where it was named "Best Documentary."
-- Part of Cine-East: East Asian Cinema.

-- Winner of the Venice Horizons Documentary Award at the 2009 Venice Film Festival!

Cost: Free and Open to the Public

Sponsors: Program in Arts of the Moving Image (AMI), Asian Pacific Studies Institute and Asian & Middle Eastern Studies