Children of Invention November 15, 2009

The Most-Celebrated and Most-Awarded Asian-American Film of 2009 comes to Stockton!

Chinese New Year Celebration of Stockton and the San Joaquin Film Society present a special benefit screening of Tze Chun's critically-acclaimed and multiple award-winning film "Children of Invention," on Sunday, November 15th at 2:00PM at the Pacific Theatre at University of the Pacific.

Admission is $20.00.

Producer Trevor Sagan will be in attendance.

ABOUT THE FILM

One of Filmmaker Magazine’s "25 New Faces of Independent Film," writer-director Tze Chun makes his feature film debut with one of the most-awarded and best-reviewed films of the year.

With a World Premiere at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, "Children of Invention" is by turns humorous and heartbreaking, an "edge-of-your-seat family drama" (Spout) that’s both “powerfully moving and rigorously intelligent."(Boston Phoenix). After being evicted, hardworking single mom Elaine Cheng (Cindy Cheung, Lady in the Water) tries to maintain a normal life for her children, Raymond and Tina. Elaine juggles a number of jobs, including working for a questionable pyramid scheme. When Elaine doesn’t return home one night, nobody knows the kids are home alone, and they are left to fend for themselves. As the days pass, Raymond, a budding inventor, realizes he needs to come up with a plan to take care of his little sister. Referencing both the mortgage meltdown and suburban Ponzi schemes, “the film finds delicate moments of beauty and grace as its child heroes are forced to make their way” (Filmmaker Magazine). Featuring “gifted child actors--off-the-charts cute, refreshingly free of Hollywood precociousness” (LA Weekly), "Children of Invention" is "as close to cinematic purity as one is likely to see this year" (Film Society of Lincoln Center), a timely drama about the influence of the adult world on children and resilience in hard times.

86 min | USA | 2009
Film is in English and Chinese, with English Subtitles

AWARDS AND FESTIVALS

In addition to its world premiere at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, "Children of Invention" has won 14 film festival awards:

• Grand Jury Prizes for Best Narrative Feature, 2009 Newport International Film Festival
• Grand Jury Prizes for Best Narrative Feature, 2009 Independent Film Festival Boston
• Grand Jury Prizes for Best Narrative Feature, 2009 Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival
• Grand Jury Prize, Best Film, 2009 San Diego Asian Film Festival
• Best Narrative Feature, 2009 San Diego Asian Film Festival
• Special Jury Prize, 2009 Sarasota Film Festival
• Special Jury Prize, 2009 Nashville Film Festival
• Special Jury Prize, 2009 Indie Memphis Film Festival
• Special Jury Prize, 2009 Los Angeles Asian Pacific
• Best Narrative Feature, 2009 Ojai-Ventura Film Festival
• Special Jury Prize, 2009 San Francisco International Asian American Film Festivals
• Puma Emerging Filmmaker Award, 2009 Hawaii International Film Festival
• Honorable Mention for Editing, 2009 Woodstock Film Festival
• George C. Lin Emerging Filmmaker Award, 2009 DC APA Film Festival.

It was the Opening Night Film at five film festivals and the Closing Night Film at two film festivals in 2009.

Official Website: http://www.sjiff.org