12/5/09 -"Images of East Asia" one-day workshop at UTLA

This was by far the most fun day of the seminar, and the longest. The trip up to LA was well worth it, if not only for the subway scene from My Sassy Girl. I do wish that Korea was more well represented in this seminar. I understand it is run by China Institute, it just seemed that the content for the China and Japanese film offered so much with such a long history and then the Korean section was dominated by a soap opera. I think it probably has less to do with the presentation by Don Clark, which was very enjoyable, than the history of Korean film. I found it really interesting that a whole tourist industry had opened up around this soap opera "Winter Sonata".

Sometimes it is hard to tell how directors are viewed in other countries. It was interesting to learn that Zhang Yimou was considered avant garde, and is now criticized for directing the opening ceremonies for the Chinese Summer Olympics. I would never have guessed that people would accuse him of selling out after watching his films.

I agree that Utube is a great resource for all of us to have access to many great resources for integrating movies, short clips into our classrooms.
I only have the options to share audio or dvd presentations in my class. So it would be a challenge for me to connect with internet resources to share with my class. Smart boards have been installed in the upper grades and hopefully will be school wide within the next few years.

I find that even separating fact from fiction in film and media is a great challenge for my students. Particularly because their innate nature at this age is to be completely honest and to view the world through those terms. For example, another dimension that we are working on distinguishing in Kindergarten is separating fact from fiction in written works.
Perhaps a good lesson would be to look at a book and have the research done ahead of time to share with them looking at what actually happened versus what the text says.