“I love going to exhibitions by graduating artists to see the new crop of talent and get an idea about what’s going on with particular programs,” Maine Sunday Telegram critic Daniel Kany noted on May 2 in his full-page review of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ 2010 .

He especially liked Kelly Gollogly’s and Matthew Reynolds’ animated films, and praised Emma Scott’s pairing of images of, and writings by, people orphaned by the 1994 Rwandan genocide. “Student work is literally made for criticism (by the instructor, class ‘crits,’ grades, etc.),” Kany wrote. “Instead of insisting that you revere the work (like in a museum) or admire the work (like in a gallery) or enjoy the work (like in a friend’s home), art in thesis shows tends to exude a message akin to: ‘Here’s what I did: What do you think?’ I like that direct humility.” .

Students in the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ course “Acting and Directing for the Camera” screen their class projects on April 3. The projects are scenes adapted from well-known motion pictures such as Armageddon, 28 Days Later, Juno, Bridget Jones’ Diary and American Beauty.

The screening also includes senior-thesis films by Rachael Garbowski of Brussels, Wis., and Rufat Hasanov of Baku, Azerbaijan, as well as films produced in the “Digital Film Production” course. That course and “Acting and Directing for the Camera” are taught by Professor of Theater Paul Kuritz, a member of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ theater faculty since 1978.

• Friday, April 3, at 4 p.m.
• Pettigrew Hall, Filene Room (Room 301), 305 College St.

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.