2021/07/14: Seeing China Through Film – The Early Years

Weihong Bao is an Associate Professor of Chinese and Film Studies at the University of California, Berkley.Bao received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 2006. She is the author of Fiery Cinema: The Emergence of an Affective Medium in China, 1915-1945. Her teaching and research interests cover late nineteenth century visual and performance culture, Chinese language cinema, comparative media history and theory, and the intersection between film and media. Her writings have appeared in such journals as Camera Obscura, New German Critique, Nineteenth Century Theater and Film, Opera Quarterly, The Journal of Chinese Cinemas, and The Journal of Modern Chinese Literature, among others. Bao serves on the editorial board for Feminist Media History and is co-editor for the “Film Theory in Media History” series published by Amsterdam University Press.

Richard Peña is a Professor of Film Studies at Columbia University, where he specializes in film theory and international cinema. From 1988 to 2012, he was the Program Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the Director of the New York Film Festival. A frequent lecturer on film internationally, in 2014-2015 he was a Visiting Professor in Brazilian Studies at Princeton, and in 2015-2016 a Visiting Professor in Film Studies at Harvard. In May, 2016, he was the recipient of the “Cathedra Bergman” at the UNAM in Mexico City, He currently hosts WNET/Channel 13’s weekly Reel 13.