2023 Korean film The Tenants (세입자) in Pittsburgh, September 28.

The 2023 Korean film The Tenants (세입자) will play in Pittsburghon September 28 as another addition to the SCREENSHOT: Asia film festival.

In this Kafkaesque reality, a soon-to-be-evicted tenant employs a bizarre subletting scheme that may be his solution.

In a dystopian South Korean city, an office worker endures the tedium of his job in hopes of gaining a transfer to ‘Sphere 2’, where a supposedly better reality awaits. Facing eviction by his adolescent landlord, he decides to complicate the process by renting his toilet out to an eccentric couple, but their strange behaviours soon become unbearable.

It plays in 125 Frick Fine Arts on the University of Pittsburgh campus (map) and ticket information is forthcoming.

2024 documentary The Cats of Gokogu Shrine (五香宮の猫) at Pitt, September 26, as part of the SCREENSHOT: Asia film festival.

A screening of the 2024 documentary The Cats of Gokogu Shrine (五香宮の猫) has been added to the SCREENSHOT: Asia film festival at the University of Pittsburgh on September 26. A synopsis, from director Kazuhiro Soda's official site:

Gokogu is a small, ancient Shinto shrine in Ushimado, Japan, on the Seto Inland Sea. Home to dozens of street cats, it is also known as “Cat Shrine.”

Many people visit the shrine for various reasons: some to worship gods, others to enjoy gardening. Some people come to clean the shrine as volunteers while others just stop by on their way to fish Japanese sardinella –– and it is the perfect place for kids to play after school. In addition, some people visit Gokogu to feed the freely roaming stray cats. Others just come to see these cats or to take pictures of them. It is a heaven for cat-loving residents and visitors, but some residents complain about the waste the cats leave around the neighborhood. Gokogu looks peaceful on the surface, but it is also the epicenter of a sensitive issue that divides the local community.

In 2021, after living in New York City for 27 years, Kazuhiro Soda and Kiyoko Kashiwagi relocated to Ushimado where they had previously filmed Oyster Factory (2015) and Inland Sea (2018). As new settlers, the couple tries to blend into Ushimado’s local community, and gets caught up in the problem around the cats of Gokogu. The filmmakers started rolling their camera to observe and depict the aging, traditional community and its spiritual center Gokogu. The result is a beautiful and cruel, simple yet complex portrayal of the universe of Gokogu, interwoven with people, cats, and all living beings.

It plays in 125 Frick Fine Arts in Oakland, on the edge of the University of Pittsburgh campus, (map) and ticket information is forthcoming.

2024 film Didi (弟弟) stays in Pittsburgh through (at least) September 5.

The 2024 film Didi (弟弟), which opened in Pittsburgh on August 8, will remain here through at least September 5.

In 2008, during the last month of summer before high school begins, an impressionable 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy learns what his family can’t teach him: how to skate, how to flirt, and how to love your mom.

It is scheduled to play locally at the AMC Loews Waterfront, through the 4th, and The Lindsay Theater and Cultural Center in Sewickley. Tickets are available online.

"Workshop with SWERY: The Power of Interactive Narrative, Worlds Only Games Can Create" for Pitt students, September 6.

Numerous campus and community groups are collaborating to present "Workshop with SWERY: The Power of Interactive Narrative, Worlds Only Games Can Create" at the University of Pittsburgh on September 6.

Join legendary video game designer Hidetaka 'SWERY' Suehiro in an intimate setting to hone your game design skills! SWERY will deliver a short lecture, followed by an hour of design workshop in small groups. SWERY and [Digital Narrative and Interactive Design] faculty will offer critique, advice and encouragement as you build the foundation of your own interactive narratives!

The event is limited to 50 Pitt students---it is not open to the pubilc---and will be held in 00G8 Cathedral of Learning from 5:00 pm.

2001 Japanese animated film Metropolis (メトロポリス) in Pittsburgh, November 4, 7, and 10.

The 2001 Japanese animated film Metropolis (メトロポリス) will play in Pittsburgh on November 4, 7, and 10 as part of an Anime Expo Cinema Nights series.

Anime Expo Cinema Nights Presents: Osamu Tezuka’s Metropolis, where it's man against machine in this film based on the classic manga (comic) by Osamu Tezuka, the godfather of Japanese anime and manga. In the late 1940s, long before Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion established Osamu Tezuka as one of the most influential animators of all time, the legendary illustrator created the classic manga Metropolis. Set in the future, Metropolis is a grand city-state populated by humans and robots, the cohabitants of a strictly segmented society. Detective Shunsaku Ban and his sidekick Ken-ichi search for a rebel scientist, to arrest him and seize his latest creation, Tima, a beautiful young girl. But when they locate him, Shunsaku quickly realizes that the eccentric genius is protected by a powerful man and beyond their reach. A retro-futuristic cautionary tale, Metropolis is spectacularly rendered, combining the best in Japanese cel animation with the latest in digital technology.

It it scheduled to play locally, so far, at the AMC Loews Waterfront and the Cinemark in Robinson. Tickets are available online; please note, some shows are in Japanese with English subtitles while others are dubbed in English.

SCREENSHOT: Asia 2024 Film Festival schedule announced.

The SCREENSHOT: ASIA 2024 Film Festival schedule was announced this afternoon, with films out of Japan, China, Indonesia, and Taiwan helping to comprise the lineup. Selections include:

• A Great Absence (大いなる不在』予告編), Japan - September 29 at Frick Fine Arts (Pitt campus)
• Black Dog (狗阵), China - September 28 at Harris Theater
• Salli (莎莉), Taiwan - September 25 in Lawrence Hall (Pitt campus)
• Sweet Dreams, Indonesia - September 27 at Harris Theater

Tickets and showtime info is now available online. SCREENSHOT: ASIA, which puts on the annual festival along with other Asian programming,

is a joint project from the Film and Media Studies Program and the Asian Studies Center that brings together students, faculty, and community members to create a shared awareness of Asian and Asian American experiences through contemporary film and media. Using film, video, and other on-screen arts, the series provides a forum to learn about Asian art, whether it is a classic work of cinema, a film by an emerging director, or a documentary addressing contemporary social concerns. The programming allows us to reflect on the importance of visual arts, current arts technology, and the place of cultural experiences in a global educational experience.

Art Beyond Borders: The Global Networks of Satellite Art (1984–1988), September 26 at Pitt.

The University of Pittsburgh's Humanities Center will present "Art Beyond Borders: The Global Networks of Satellite Art (1984–1988)" on September 26.

Hosted by the Humanities Center and graduate fellow, Vuk Vuković. Respondents include Mark Collins from the Geology and Environmental Science department and Joshua Ellenbogen from the History of Art and Architecture department. This event will be hybrid, so you can attend it either in person in 602 CL or via Zoom as you prefer.

In 1988, as Cold War tensions diminished and the digital revolution began, Korean-born artist Nam June Paik orchestrated a global collaboration with eleven broadcasting stations, including those in the Soviet Union and China, to create his final satellite work, Wrap Around the World (1988). Inspired by architect Buckminster Fuller's 1969 global electric grid concept, Paik aimed to transcend nationalism, merging architecture, design, and video to foster global interconnectedness. This colloquium will argue that Paik's satellite trilogy—Good Morning, Mr. Orwell (1984), Bye Bye Kipling (1986), and Wrap Around the World—employed simultaneous art broadcasts to connect nations across borders, fulfilling Fuller's unrealized vision.

Precirculated material for this colloquium will be available here about two weeks prior and up to the event.

The event will be held from 12:30 to 2:00 pm in 602 Cathedral of Learning or online via Zoom.

Whisper of the Heart (耳をすませば), The Cat Returns (猫の恩返し) in Pittsburgh for Studio Ghibli Fest 2024, from August 25.

The Japanese animated movies Whisper of the Heart (耳をすませば) and The Cat Returns (猫の恩返し) will play in Pittsburgh as part of Studio Ghibli Fest 2024, from August 25. A synopsis of the former, from the distributor:

Discover the brilliance of this heartwarming coming-of-age classic from the legendary Studio Ghibli, creators of My Neighbor Totoro and the Academy Award®-winning Spirited Away.

A chance encounter with a mysterious cat sends Shizuku, a quiet schoolgirl, on a quest for her true talent. Together with Seiji, a boy determined to follow his dreams, and enchanted by The Baron, a magical cat figurine who helps her listen to the whispers of her heart, Shizuku embarks on a life-changing adventure that takes her beyond the boundaries of her imagination. This beautiful tale based on a screenplay from Hayao Miyazaki will delight and amaze audiences of all ages!

And the latter:

In this sequel to Whisper of the Heart, a quiet suburban schoolgirl, Haru, is pitched into a fantastical feline world and must find her inner strength to make her way back home. Walking with her friend after a dreary day at school, Haru eyes a cat with a small gift box in its mouth attempting to cross a busy street. The cat fumbles the package in the middle of the road as a truck is rapidly bearing down. Haru manages to scoop the cat away to safety. To her amazement, the cat then gets up on its hind legs, brushes itself off, and thanks her very politely.

Strange behavior indeed, but this is nothing compared to what happens later that evening when the King of Cats shows up in a feline motorcade replete with vassals, maidens, and even Secret Service cats. In a show of gratitude for saving his son’s life, the king cat showers Haru with gifts – including a large supply of individually wrapped live mice – and decrees that she shall marry the cat prince and come to live as a princess in the secret Kingdom of Cats.

WHisper of the Heart plays on August 25 and 27, while The Cat Returns plays on August 26 and 28. Tickets for the shows at most local theaters are available online, though please note some are in Japanese with English subtitles while others are dubbed in English.

R.F. Kuang in Pittsburgh as part of Ten Evenings series, April 28, 2025.

Author R.F. Kuang will speak in Pittsburgh as part of Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures' Ten Evenings series on April 28, 2025.

White lies. Dark humor. Deadly consequences… Bestselling sensation Juniper Song is not who she says she is, she didn’t write the book she claims she wrote, and she is most certainly not Asian American–in this chilling and hilariously cutting novel from R.F. Kuang.

Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars. But Athena’s a literary darling. June Hayward is literally nobody. Who wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks.

When June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers during World War I. So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song–complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree.

But June can’t get away from Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

With its totally immersive first-person voice, Yellowface grapples with questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation, as well as the terrifying alienation of social media. R.F. Kuang’s novel is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently readable.

Rebecca F. Kuang is the #1 New York Times and #1 Sunday Times bestselling author of the Poppy War trilogy, Babel: An Arcane History, and Yellowface. Her work has won the Nebula, Locus, Crawford, and British Book Awards. A Marshall Scholar, she has an MPhil in Chinese Studies from Cambridge and an MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies from Oxford. She is now pursuing a PhD in East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale, where she studies diaspora, contemporary Sinophone literature, and Asian American literature.

Copies of the book are available to purchase at White Whale Bookstore, and tickets for the event are now available online. The event takes place at the Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland (map) and will also be livestreamed.

2022 film Everything Everywhere All at Once returns to Pittsburgh for A24 x IMAX presentation, August 28.

The 2022 film Everything Everywhere All at Once will play in Pittsburgh on August 28.

When an interdimensional rupture unravels reality, an unlikely hero must channel her newfound powers to fight bizarre and bewildering dangers from the multiverse as the fate of the world hangs in the balance. Winner of 7 Academy Awards including Best Picture, experience all universes at once in IMAX.

It plays locally at the AMC Loews Waterfront and tickets are available online.