Sunday, March 20, 2016

The Propaganda Game, Coffin in the Mountain (心迷宫) at CMU International Film Festival, March 24 and 26.



The CMU International Film Festival recently announced the schedule for its 2016 iteration, with two movies of special interest to this site: 2014's The Propaganda Game and the 2015 Chinese film Coffin in the Mountain (心迷宫).

A February 22 Time Out review summarizes the 2015 documentary on North Korea, which will play at CMU on March 24:
Aware that every foreign visitor emerges from North Korea with the feeling that their trip has been painstakingly stage-managed, [filmmaker Alvaro] Longoria set out determined to get at least a fleeting glimpse of the ‘real’ nation. He never really succeeds, which makes for an interesting but never exactly gripping doc. But what his film does demonstrate, through interviews with UN officials, Amnesty workers and CNN journalists, is that propaganda is a game two can play – and the Western powers are every bit as practiced at it as Kim and his cronies.
The 2015 Seattle International Film Festival page sumarizes Coffin in the Mountain, which will play at CMU on March 26 and will be followed by a Skype session with Xin Yukun:
A suspenseful whodunit drama revolving around the fallout from the discovery and mistakenly identified human remains found atop the mountain of a remote Chinese village. A dark and playful moralistic fable.
Information and tickets are available at the festival's website. Tickets are $10 general admission and $5 for seniors and students.

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