Chinese-born scholar and director Carma Hinton screens her new two-hour film about the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Morning Sun, at 6 p.m. Monday, March 22, in Room 104 of the Olin Arts Center, 75 Russell Street. Sponsored by the Asian studies program and the Freeman Foundation, the film and subsequent discussion led by the filmmaker are open to the public at no charge. For more information, call 207-786-8296.

Morning Sun is not a comprehensive or chronological history of the Cultural Revolution as such; nor is it a study of elite politics or of student factionalism. Instead, it presents a psychological history of the period as experienced by Cultural Revolution participants. It explores cultures and convictions as well as history.

“To my knowledge, there is nothing else like Morning Sun available that concentrates specifically on the Cultural Revolution,” says Maggie Maurer-Fazio, associate professor of economics and chair of Asian studies at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, whose research focuses on labor market developments in China.

Morning Sun attempts to create an inner history of the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1964-76). The film provides a view of a tumultuous period through the eyes — and reflected in the hearts and minds — of members of the high-school generation born around the time of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, in 1949, and that came of age in the 1960s. Others join them in creating in the film’s conversation about the period and the psycho-emotional topography of China, as well as the enduring legacy of that period.

A BBC reviewer called Morning Sun one of  “the best studies of Maoism but also a strong contender for the award of most significant documentary about contemporary history.”

Hinton co-directed Morning Sun with Geremie R. Barmé and Richard Gordon. Born in Beijing in 1949, Hinton lived there until she was 21. Chinese is Hinton’s first language and culture. She has a Ph.D. in art history from Harvard University and has taught Chinese language, history and culture at Wellesley, Swarthmore and MIT. This project has been deeply influenced by Hinton’s personal, first-hand understanding of the politics and history of the period, and her direct witness of and participation in many of the events of the Cultural Revolution, which began when she was 16 years old. All interviews were conducted by Hinton in Chinese.

Morning Sun is not a comprehensive or chronological history of the Cultural Revolution as such; nor is it a study of elite politics or of student factionalism. Instead, it presents a psychological history of the period as experienced by Cultural Revolution participants. It explores cultures and convictions as well as history.

“To my knowledge, there is nothing else like Morning Sun available that concentrates specifically on the Cultural Revolution,” says Maggie Mauer-Fazio, associate professor of economics and chair of Asian studies at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, whose research focuses on labor market developments in China.

Morning Sun attempts to create an inner history of the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1964-76). The film provides a view of a tumultuous period through the eyes —  and reflected in the hearts and minds — of members of the high-school generation born around the time of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, in 1949, and that came of age in the 1960s. Others join them in creating in the film’s conversation about the period and the psycho-emotional topography of China, as well as the enduring legacy of that period.

A BBC reviewer called Morning Sun one of  “the best studies of Maoism but also a strong contender for the award of most significant documentary about contemporary history.”

Hinton co-directed Morning Sun with Geremie R. Barmé and Richard Gordon. Born in Beijing in 1949, Hinton lived there until she was 21. Chinese is Hinton’s first language and culture. She has a doctoral degree in art history from Harvard University and has taught Chinese language, history and culture at Wellesley, Swarthmore and MIT. This project has been deeply influenced by Hinton’s personal, first-hand understanding of the politics and history of the period, and her direct witness of and participation in many of the events of the Cultural Revolution, which began when she was 16 years old. All interviews were conducted by Hinton in Chinese

Prior to her visit, several of Hinton’s films will be shown in the Keck Classroom. Small Happiness, focusing on the lives of women in China, and China’s Only Child will be shown at 4:10 p.m. Monday, Feb. 28. The Dying Rooms, about the conditions of Shanghai orphanages and Good Fortune, about successful adoptions of Chinese infants by American families, will be shown at 4:10 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 29. These, too, are open to the public and free of charge.

Hinton has produced and directed Hong Kong on Stage (1997), a short film about an avant-garde theater group in Hong Kong on the eve of the 1997 transfer of sovereignty to China and The Gate of Heavenly Peace (1995), a three-hour film about the 1989 Chinese democracy movement. She also has produced and directed Abode of Illusion (1992), First Moon (1991), Stilt Dancers (1981) and One Village in China (1987), a three-part series that includes Small Happiness, To Taste A Hundred Herbs and All Under Heaven. Hinton also produced Acrobats (1997), Chinese Environmental Film Project (1994) and Little Plum (1994).

The Boston Globe described Small Happiness, a hit at the 1985 New Directors/New Films festival at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, as a film that “fills the screen with things that are new, illuminating, startling and rooted in humanity.” At the close of this film, Hinton narrates: “As long as a woman must leave her own family, marry into a man’s household and continue his family line, she will be considered a small happiness from the day she is born.”

Hinton’s films have appeared at festivals throughout the world and garnered various prizes. The Gate of Heavenly Peace received the George Foster Peabody Award, the International Critics Prize and the Best Social and Political Documentary Award at the Banff Film Festival.

Hinton has lectured on China and film at MIT and Wellesley and taught Chinese language at Swarthmore. She received a bachelor’s degree in Oriental studies from the University of Pennsylvania and is a doctoral candidate in Chinese art history at Harvard.