University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Screening Recap

One of the first questions that I had when we arrived in Champaign, Illinois, was, “Is it Urbana-Champaign or Champaign-Urbana?” The University is called University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), but I saw buses with signs saying Champaign-Urbana. The reason for the hyphenated name is be...Read more

Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago

Following our screening at Columbia College, we spent a few days in Chicago with my cousin, Steve. Rae and I got caught up on work while preparing for the next slate of screenings; seven showings of Autumn Gem in the next six days! Tonight’s screening will be at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Tom...Read more

Screening at Columbia College Chicago

This morning, we departed Madison, Wisconsin, in the seat of a Coach USA bus. Our destination was Chicago, Illinois, and Columbia College Chicago. Switching buses at Janesville, Rae and I slept most of the way t...Read more

Screening at University of Wisconsin-Whitewater

Last night, we had a good turnout of about fifty students and faculty members at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Winther Hall 2001 had two screens, so if you crossed your eyes, you would have tho...Read more

Screening at University of Wisconsin-Madison

We had an intimate screening at the University of Wisconsin-Madison today; though there were not many people who showed up, those that did asked some great questions. One was whether Qiu Jin was viewed as more of a nationalist or feminist? In China and Taiwan, people are taught in school about Qiu Jin’s revolutionary work more so than her feminist work. In...Read more

First Stop: Madison, Wisconsin

We arrived in Madison, Wisconsin, shortly after 7:00 pm CST. A number of people on our flight were sporting Green Bay Packers logos; no doubt they were eagerly anticipating the matchup on Monday Night Football between the Packers and the Brett Favre-led Minnesota Vikings. The Packers put up a good fight, but they fell to their former quarterback 30-23. Favre is the first QB to have beaten all 32 teams in the NFL. Quite an achievement, even if it comes at the expense of his former team.

Tomorrow, we’ll be showing the doc...Read more

Packing for a 17 stop, 25 day trip

With the start of our 25-day tour of Autumn Gem underway, we’d like to talk a little bit about our packing strategy. First, some background information on how we used to approach packing.

Back in 1995, I was a junior at Stanford spending a quarter abroad in Paris, France. I brought way too much stuff with me on the trip: a garment bag, two suitcases, and a backpack (which held my PowerBook 180 and original Newton MessagePad). When I w...Read more

Off to Madison

We’re off on our whirlwind tour of the Midwest and East Coast! We’ll be reporting from all of the cities, schools, and locations we’re screening Autumn Gem in. Be back later today from Madison, Wisconsin!

Santa Clara University Screening Recap

We had a great turnout at the Santa Clara University screening this evening, with nearly 120 people showing up on a Wednesday evening at Daly Science Center, Room 206. Big thanks go out to Barbara Molony, History Department chair at SCU, for organizing this event. Like at the UCSF screening, the demographic among the crowd was broad: students, extras in the movie, family, friends and people who heard about it in our articles in the various Bay Area newspapers. Thanks for coming out!

Yesterday, we received shipme...Read more

UCSF Screening Recap and Photos

Over 80 people came to the UCSF Cole Hall Auditorium screening of Autumn Gem this evening. There was a great mix of relatives, family friends, college buddies, and a whole contingent from UCSF. Thanks to Zhiyong Yang and his crew at UCSF for organizing the successful screening. The pizza was especially a big hit with the crowd; I can’t believe all the pies were eaten tonight!

I wish all of our screenings could be held in a f...Read more