Acclaimed filmmaker Ottinger visits with 'Exile Shanghai'

Cornell Cinema and Ithaca College welcome German filmmaker Ulrike Ottinger for a two-night screening of her epic documentary "Exile Shanghai."

Refugees from Hitler's Germany flocked to Shanghai in the days leading up to World War II because it was one of the few places in the world that did not require a visa. Next week internationally acclaimed German-Jewish filmmaker Ulrike Ottinger will introduce "Exile Shanghai," her richly evocative documentary about Jewish immigration to the city that was once considered the most cosmopolitan in the Far East.

Interviews, archival footage and scenes from modern-day Shanghai form the backdrop of this cross-national and cross-generational dialogue about Western Jews in Shanghai in the late 1930s. Ottinger searches the present-day metropolis for synagogues, schools and salons, the last traces of a lost Jewish expatriate culture. Stefan Grisseman of Die Presse praised the film for its "three-dimensional portrait of historical events."

Parts 1 and 2 of the epic will be shown at Ithaca College's Park Auditorium, Feb. 3, from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Cornell Cinema will show Parts 3, 4 and 5, Feb. 4, from 7 to 9:30 p.m. in Willard Straight Theatre. Ottinger will answer questions following both screenings.

"Each part is a separate documentary," said Mary Fessenden, director of Cornell Cinema, "so it is not necessary to see them all to understand them." Admission to the Park Auditorium screening Feb. 3 is free and open to the public. Admission to the Cornell Cinema screening Feb. 4 is $4.50/$4 for students and seniors. For more information, contact Mary Fessenden at 255-3883.

Sunday, Jan. 31, in advance of Ottinger's visit, the Pentangle Program will present another one of her films, "Johanna D'Arc of Mongolia." The screening of the film, at 7:30 p.m. in Uris Auditorium, is free and open to the public. It traces the fantastic adventure of a group of Western women -- an elegant ethnographer, a prim tourist, a Broadway chanteuse and an all-girl klezmer trio -- traveling on the Trans-Siberian Express. They are hijacked by a band of Mongol horsewomen and taken on a wild ride across the magnificent landscape. Critics have called the film a grandly entertaining, unforgettable journey and have likened it to "Lawrence of Arabia" for its sweeping romanticism.