Hunter College, CUNY Asian American Studies Program

Children of Invention

Date: Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Time: 2PM to 4PM

Place: Hunter College, CUNY
695 Park Avenue, Manhattan
Hunter West Building – Room 215

Free Admission

Screening of Children of Invention (Running Time: 86 Minutes), followed by discussion with director Tze Chun.

Two young children living outside Boston are left to fend for themselves when their mother gets embroiled in a pyramid scheme and disappears.

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. 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.

Sponsored by
Asian American / Asian Research Institute – CUNY (AAARI-CUNY)
Hunter College Asian American Studies Program