Fresno State’s CineCulture fall film series begins at 5:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 31, at the Leon S. and Pete P. Peters Educational Center in the Student Recreation Center (Woodrow and Shaw avenues), with a screening of “Mao’s Last Dancer.”

The film is a true story about an 11-year-old boy in rural China during the 1970s who undergoes a brutal state-sponsored apprenticeship that turns him into an internationally acclaimed dancer.

CineCulture’s series this fall is comprised of 15 films, 11 on-campus and four in conjunction with Fresno Filmworks, whose films are screened at the Tower Theatre (815 E. Olive Ave.).

In recognition of National Hispanic Heritage Month Sept. 15-Oct. 15, CineCulture will present two films on campus.

Sept. 21’s film is “A Better Life,” about a Mexican immigrant gardener’s efforts to keep his son from joining East Los Angeles gangs. The guest discussant will be Dolores Huerta, who helped launch what now is the United Farm Workers union with César Chávez.

On Oct. 5, CineCulture, the Jewish Federation of Central California and Fresno State’s Jewish Studies Association and Department of Chicano and Latin American Studies will present “Mexican Suitcase.” The film is about friends and Jewish exiles from Hungary, Poland and Germany who became acclaimed photojournalists in the 1930s.

A timely CineCulture’s entry is David Barsamian’s presentation about “Media, Democracy and Elections” at 2 p.m. Sept. 28 at the Alice Peters Auditorium in the University Business Center.

CineCulture is a film series for Fresno State students, faculty and staff and the community and an academic course in the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism. The on-campus screenings, followed by discussions, begin at 5:30 p.m. in the Peters Education Center and are free and open to the public.

The rest of the CineCulture fall schedule:

  • Sept. 7 – “Bitter Seeds”
  • Sept. 14 – “Take This Waltz” (5:30 and 8:30 p.m. Tower Theatre).
  • Sept. 28 – “Inside Job”
  • Oct. 19 – “Transcending: The Wat Misaka Story”
  • Oct. 26 – “Conviction”
  • Nov. 2 – “Touch”
  • Nov. 16 – “Pelada”
  • Nov. 30 – To be announced
  • Dec. 7 – “Free Men (Les Hommes Libres)”

Fresno Filmworks programs are Oct. 12, Nov. 9 and Dec. 14, but films have not been announced.

For more information, contact Dr. Mary Husain at 559.278.5702 or mhusain@csufresno.edu

(Copy prepared by University Communications news student assistant Alejandra Garcia.)

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