Panel on Mao Zedong following film: THE PASSION OF THE MAO

If you have strong views either way regarding Mao Zedong and his legacy, here’s your opportunity to discuss them along with a panel of experts following the screening of THE PASSION OF THE MAO at the Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose on March 11 at 2:00pm. Bring your friends and controversial questions or thoughts and share them with the crowd! Each of the contributors to this panel are highly regarded in their field, and the exchange of perspectives on an extremely volatile topic promises to be animated. THE PASSION OF THE MAO is an irreverent documentary that reexamines the Cultural Revolution and restores the once bright reputation of Mao Zedong. It manages all at once to put a new twist on Mao’s life, to mock the recent film by Mel Gibson, and to demonstrate how Mao’s influence still has a grasp on present day China. To view press kit and trailer: www.thepassionofthemao.com Saturday, March 11th at 2:00 pm - California Theater - 345 South First Street- San Jose, CA & Sunday, March 12th at 2:45 p.m. - Camera 12 - 201 South Second Street - San Jose, CA To buy tickets: http://www.cinequest.org/2006/programguide/event_view.php?eid=209 Since there is no single correct view on Mao Zedong, the director wants to use the opportunity of this premiere screening to have a diverse panel of experts discuss the issues raised in the film. A list of panelists follows. WHO KNEW COMMUNISM COULD BE SO FUNNY? Mao Zedong—Cultural Revolution chairman, Communism icon, “red menace.” To those facets, The Passion of the Mao now adds “funny guy.” In this rollicking documentary, the life and times of the People’s Republic of China dictator are examined to dispel many of the misconceptions regarding Mao, as well as to shed new light onto the many contradictions. Best of all, filmmaker Lee Feigon uses a cheeky tone to bring the many sides of history together, blending interviews, stock footage, and animated interludes into an informative and highly enjoyable essay. DON’T WORRY, IT WILL BE CONTROVERSIAL! Feigon interviewed people who lived through the Cultural Revolution—who say that Mao, and especially the Cultural Revolution, were the best things in their lives. They credit the Cultural Revolution for making them feminists and allowing them to have an education. Under Mao the economy grew fast, laying the foundation for China’s recent success. Even the Dalai Lama speaks fondly of Mao. And what about the anti-Maoist beliefs that have sullied the reputation of the man once referred to as “the sun in the sky?” They are part of a vast radical conspiracy, the result of propaganda churned out by the same people who turned the tanks on the Tiananmen demonstrators. The Panel consists of: Moderator: LEE FEIGON - Director-writer-producer of THE PASSION OF THE MAO: A research associate at the Center for East Asian Studies of the University of Chicago, Feigon writes frequently about East Asian politics, economics, history, and culture for publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, Nation, the Chicago Tribune, the Atlantic, and the Boston Globe. He has been interviewed on television shows such as MacNeil Lehrer, CNN, Hardball CNBC, and the NBC Nightly News. This is his directorial debut. His newest and most divisive literary work is Mao: A Reinterpretation (2002). He is also the author of the acclaimed Demystifying Tibet: Unlocking the Secrets of the Land of the Snows (1996), as well as of China Rising: The Meaning of Tiananmen (1990). His first book was the biography: Chen Duxiu: Founder of the Chinese Communist Party (Princeton University Press, 1983). - GAIL HERSHATTER - Professor of Modern Chinese History at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is also the director of the Center for Humanities Research and the co-director of the Center for Cultural Studies at the school. She writes on woman and workers issues in modern China and is the author of Dangerous Pleasures: Prostitution and Modernity in Twentieth-Century Shanghai (University of California, 1997), which has been translated into Chinese. - SUJIAN GUO - graduate of Peking University in Beijing, is an Associate Professor of Political Science at San Francisco State University. Dr. Guo has published more than two dozens articles both in English and Chinese. He is the author of Post-Mao China: from Totalitarianism to Authoritarianism? (2000) and is the editor of The Journal of Chinese Political Science. - DAVID EWING - Co-Chair of the United States/China Peoples Friendship Association. He is an attorney who specializes in immigration law for Chinese people. He is a frequent English Language commentator on China-USA relations and on Mao and the Chinese Revolution. - CHRISTOPHER CONNERY - Co-director of the Center for Cultural Studies and an Associate Professor of Literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is the author of Empire of the Text: Writing and Authority in Early Imperial China (Roman & Littlefield, 1998), and "Ideologies of Land and Sea: Alfred Thayer Mahan, Carl Schmitt, and the Shaping of Global Myth Elements" boundary 2 (Summer, 2001). Professor Connery also serves on the editorial board of boundary 2.