Films by Oscar winner and Taiwanese-born director Ang Lee, left, will be screened and discussed during International Education Week, Nov. 16-20. The films selected for the festival are all part of Lee’s exploration of generational and cultural conflicts among Taiwanese parents and their Americanized children.

International Education Week, a joint initiative of the U.S. Departments of State and Education, celebrates the benefits of international education and exchange worldwide by promoting programs that prepare Americans for a global environment and attracts students from other nations to study in the United States and exchange experiences with U.S. students.

A panel discussion will follow the Nov. 20 film, Eat Drink Man Woman. Panelists will be Harry Benshoff, associate professor of radio, television and film; Kevin Heffernan, adjunct faculty at UNT and associate professor of cinema-television at Southern Methodist University; and Don Staples, professor emeritus of radio, television and film. 

These films will be shown at 7 p.m. in the University Union, Lyceum:

• Nov. 16: Pushing Hands (Tui shou) — In this 1992 release, a retired Chinese tai-chi master moves to New York to live with his son's family. His presence leads to a family struggle between cultural tradition and the modern American lifestyle.
• Nov. 18: The Wedding Banquet (Xi yan) — This 1993 flim features a gay Taiwanese-American man whose parents pressure him to marry, so he marries a Chinese girl who needs to marry an American citizen to obtain a green card. Complications arise when the young man’s parents arrange a huge banquet to celebrate.
• Nov. 21: Eat Drink Man Woman (Yin shi nan nu) — Released in 1994, this film focuses on a chef in Taipei with three adult daughters. Life revolves around the ritual of an elaborate dinner each Sunday and the love lives of all of the family members.

Lee also has directed Sense and Sensibility, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hulk and Brokeback Mountain, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Director. 

Contact UNT-International at 940-565-2197.

(Photo courtesy of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.)