Asian Cinema - Volume 6, Issue 1-2, 1993

Across the country, more and more professors are using video in Asian studies courses. With its wide availability and relatively low costs, video has become a major force in education today. Many professors are using video in Asian studies to teach "cinema" as well as language and that is where the problems start. The use of video as the primary source for visual information is improper, and, in fact, detrimental. I understand the budget constraints placed upon professors and programmers, who are seemingly forced to use VHS in the classroom. However, this is a short-sighted view of the educational experience and cheats students who attend places of higher education.

International Film Circuit (IFC) was founded in 1987 in response to the deteriorating situation of foreign-language film distribution in the United States, seen most clearly in the virtual absence of Asian films from our nation's movie screens. IFC is not a distributor in the strict sense of the word, but rather a non-profit organization which organizes touring film exhibitions and circulates them to the so-called semi-theatrical market comprised of museums, universities, and media art centers.

The South Indian state of Kerala has a highly literate population of 26 million people with a shared passion for the movies. As in the North, some huge old theaters are closing, but weekend shows are "House Full" [sold out] and people seem to be using video as an auxiliary to, rather than a replacement for, going out. Forty Malayalam-language films were released in the first six months of 1990.