Asian Studies

Blending autobiographical monologues, intimate conversations, and staged performances, Lynne Sachs' Your Day Is My Night documents the lives of Chinese immigrants sharing a "shift-bed" apartment in the heart of New York City's Chinatown, offering a deeply felt portrait of the Asian-American immigrant experience.

Produced at Harvard's groundbreaking Sensory Ethnography Lab (Sweetgrass, Leviathan, the upcoming Manakamana), People's Park is an exhilarating single shot documentary that immerses viewers in an unbroken journey through an urban park in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, offering a fresh gaze on public interaction, leisure and self-expression in China.

A powerful and unusually intimate portrait of modern environmental activism, Elemental captures the stories of three eco-warriors, separated by oceans, but united by their deep connection with nature and commitment to confront some of the most pressing ecological challenges of our time.

A heart-wrenching documentary, Restoring the Light observes the work of a dedicated ophthalmologist who operates a non-profit mobile eye clinic in one of China's poorest regions, as well as the lives of his patients. It captures the adversities and hopes of a population that has been left behind in the wake of China's dizzying economic boom.

A heartbreaking and hilarious film of repeating patterns and circumstance, The Day He Arrives, from the celebrated Korean auteur Hong Sangsoo, is a meditation on relationships, filmmaking, and the unknowable forces that govern our lives. An official selection of the Cannes Film Festival.

Winner of the prestigious Best Documentary prize at the International Film Festival Amsterdam, Planet of Snail is a mesmerizing, critically-acclaimed documentary about an accomplished young poet who can no longer hear or see and his relationship to the world around him.

A landmark documentary trilogy, Sun, Moon, Stars captures the tumultuous changes taking place in Indonesia by following three generations of a single Jakarta family for over a decade. Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Leonard Retel Helmrich, it offers an unparalleled, vibrant portrait of the world's fourth most populous nation; and home to the largest Muslim community.

For over a decade, noted filmmaker Leonard Retel Helmrich followed the lives of an Indonesian family in Jakarta. In this final film of his acclaimed Sun, Moon, Stars trilogy, Helmrich confronts the most important issues facing the country's fast-changing society: corruption, conflict between religions, gambling addiction, the generation gap, and the widening disparity between rich and poor.

The end of the Suharto regime ushered in an era of rapid sociopolitical upheaval in Indonesia. In this second installment of the Sun, Moon, Stars trilogy, filmmaker Leonard Retel Helmrich returns to the Sjamsuddin family to intimately capture the changes taking place in their country, including the troubling rise of Islamic fundamentalism.

Against a backdrop of social unrest that led to the ouster of Indonesia's long-time dictator President Suharto, The Eye of the Day begins filmmaker Leonard Retel Helmrich's award-winning trilogy Sun, Moon, Stars. It introduces us to an ordinary family living in the slums of Jakarta; a family Helmrich would return to and document for more than a decade.

An extraordinary and inspiring documentary about one man's journey from child soldier to international hero. A Perfect Soldier tells the story of Aki Ra, who as a young boy was taken by the Khmer Rouge and forced to plant hundreds of landmines in the Cambodian countryside. As an adult, he has devoted his life to removing them, one landmine at a time. In 2010, he was named one of CNN's Top 10 Heroes of the Year.

On December 2, 1984, forty tons of poisonous gas leaked from a Union Carbide (DOW Chemical) pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, killing over 20,000 people. Today, hundreds of thousands continue to suffer from chronic diseases and disabilities. Bhopali is an invaluable examination of the world's worst environmental disaster.