CU Cinema features film editor Tim Squyres and filmmaker Julie Murray

Tickets are sold out for the Nov. 18 visit of director Ang Lee, who is introducing a sneak preview of his film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," but you can still see two filmmakers next week at Cornell Cinema.

Film editor Tim Squyres, Cornell Class of '81, has worked with Lee since the director's debut in 1992 with "Pushing Hands," and he will introduce their two most recent releases, "Ride With the Devil" and "The Ice Storm," on Nov. 17.

The work of director Ang Lee is the subject of Cornell Cinema's series "Crossing Borders: The Many Worlds of Ang Lee."

Experimental filmmaker Julie Murray will present a program of her short films Nov. 14, as part of the Cinema Off-Center program, co-sponsored with the Cornell Council for the Arts.

Squyres graduated from Cornell in 1981 with a degree in psychology, but he knew he wanted to work with film after taking Marilyn Rivchin's Introduction to 16mm Film class in the Department of Theatre, Film and Dance. He has worked as an editor on all of Lee's films.

Squyres said, "I'm astonishingly fortunate to have met Ang when I did. Nine years ago we were a couple of nobodies editing a movie in a closet. I'm very proud of the seven films that we've done, and I think, hopefully without overstating it, that the world is a more interesting place because of Ang's work. In editing his films I've found challenges and rewards that I believe are exceptional in the contemporary American entertainment business."

Their work together has been extraordinarily diverse, from Lee's early films about Taiwanese families caught between traditional cultural values and increasing Westernization to his more recent American films. Cornell Cinema's series "Crossing Borders: The Many Worlds of Ang Lee" offers a sampling of their work. Admission to the screenings listed below is $4.50 general/$4 students and seniors. The films will be shown in Willard Straight Theatre.

The series begins with "Eat Drink Man Woman," Lee's third film and the completion of what he has described as his "father" trilogy. As in "Pushing Hands" and the follow-up hit "The Wedding Banquet," the focus is on family. A master Taipei chef loses his sense of taste just as his three grown-up daughters are discovering a hunger for new lives outside the family home. "Eat Drink Man Woman" serves up a serious meditation of love and loyalty with plenty of comic touches and an attention to sensual detail that's characteristic of Lee's work. "Eat Drink Man Woman" will be shown Friday, Nov. 10, at 9:25 p.m.

In 1997 Lee surprised audiences and critics with "The Ice Storm," based on Rick Moody's novel about two suburban families coming undone in the early 1970s. Aided by a remarkable ensemble cast, with standout performances by Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver and Christina Ricci, Lee found the anguished, drifting heart of the era underneath a surface of polyester, wife-swapping and cynicism. Squyres will introduce a screening of "The Ice Storm" Friday, Nov. 17, at 10:30 p.m.

Last year's "Ride With the Devil" was an even more ambitious project, forcing Lee to re-create not only the look and feel of the Civil War era but also the complicated loyalties and psychological compromises of a group of young Southern guerrilla fighters. Adapted from a novel by Daniel Woodrell, the film stages battle scenes as brutal as anything put on screen, made more compelling by the performances of a talented cast including Tobey Maguire, Skeet Ulrich and Jewel. Squyres will introduce a screening of "Ride With the Devil" Friday, Nov. 17, at 7 p.m.

On Nov. 14 filmmaker Julie Murray presents an evening of her experimental work at 7:30 p.m. in the Center for Theatre Arts Film Forum. Using found footage excerpts from industrial, travel and education films, as well as her own new footage, Murray applies artful editing techniques and inventive juxtapositions to create densely woven, often humorous pieces. Cinema Off-Center is co-curated by Mary Fessenden and David Gatten. Admission is $3.