FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact People: Lauren Brenner, Joseph Palis
Telephone Numbers: (919) 260-7125, (919) 360-5519
Email Addresses: lbrenner@email.unc.edu, palis@email.unc.edu
Web site: http://imaginingburma.blogspot.com
Chapel Hill-Carrboro, NC
June 23, 3008
At the end of the twentieth-century, Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman said, "Film images now bulldoze boundaries.” With current debates about the collapse of nation-states, the question arises: does national cinema still exist in contemporary times? Some argue that the national is not what it once was, but neither has it disappeared. In the current cinematic practice, a paradox exists in the dissolving of national signifiers and the simultaneous rise of state-sponsored national imagery.
It is with these issues in mind that we are mounting a post-national film series in Chapel Hill and Carrboro that focuses on Burma. In the wake of Cyclone Nargis, the role of the state in relief operations draws attention to the type of image Burma’s state wants to project. "Imagining Burma: A Post-National Film Series" aims to critically explore the issue of blurred national boundaries of Burma through a program of feature-length films and documentaries. The film series also hopes to provide a public venue in the Triangle of North Carolina, where one of the largest concentrations of Burmese refugees has settled. Our goals are to encourage debate on these films and also to assist the Burmese communities who were directly and indirectly affected by the cyclone.
“Imagining Burma” will open with a party from 7pm to 9pm on July 17, 2008 at Weaver Street Market. This outdoor event will feature WXYC DJs spinning Southeast Asian music and free Burmese cuisine. A screening of The Burmese Harp will follow at Southern Rail (The Station) from 10pm to midnight. On July 31, the series will continue with a pair of documentaries, Our Burmese Days and Burma from 7pm to 9pm at Hanes Art Center on UNC's Campus. The third event in the series will be a screening and Southeast Asian Dance party from 9pm to 2am on August 14 at the Nightlight.
For more information, contact Lauren Brenner (lbrenner@email.unc.edu
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