Kevin Lee (center) with students of Swarthmore College (photo by Shiyin Lin)
Last month dGenerate Films’ Kevin B. Lee gave a presentation and screening to students and faculty at Swarthmore College. Alex Ho, student organizer of the event, provided the following testimonial:
Many thanks for coming to Swarthmore College to speak about the growth in independent Chinese cinema over the past decade and what your company dGenerate Films is doing to help this movement gain greater exposure. Your talk was of great interest to our varied audience, which included film studies and Chinese studies students and faculty as well as the general liberal arts student who attended on a whim.
As an admirer of your work in online film criticism, I was excited to bring to our college your take on what makes this particular moment in film history so groundbreaking and important, given your extensive knowledge of and passion for world cinema. Your talk certainly didn’t disappoint; it was an accessible, sweeping introduction to Chinese cinema and its place in the foreign film market. At the same time, for even those more familiar with Chinese film, your talk was a priceless look into the works of up-and-coming independent filmmakers that most of the film world doesn’t yet seem to have caught on to. You definitely tapped into our school’s affinity for small-scale, relaxed seminars, peppering your talk with interesting anecdotes and seriously considering questions from our audience about the pertinence of the “dGenerate movement” to the general public in the U.S. and China. Thanks also for having an informal dinner with some of our students and letting us pick your brain about a multitude of topics within and outside of Chinese cinema.
Again, it was a pleasure to bring your presentation to Swarthmore. I hope to see your talk reach more and larger college audiences in the future. Certainly, any university interested in covering Chinese film in its curriculum, shouldn’t limit themselves to the well-known Fifth and Sixth Generation, but look also to the less Beijing-centric films that dGenerate Films works to distribute.
Best,
Alex Ho
dGenerate Films organizes presentations and screenings at colleges, museums and other institutions across the country. For more information, please contact info *at* dgeneratefilms *dot* com.