Carma Hinton
Encyclopedia
Carma Hinton is a documentary
filmmaker and Clarence J. Robinson Professor of Visual Culture and Chinese Studies at George Mason University
, in Fairfax
, Virginia
, United States
. She was born and raised in Beijing
, China
, by American parents, and lived there until she was twenty-one. Chinese is her first language and culture. Together with Richard Gordon, Hinton has directed thirteen documentary films about China, including Morning Sun, The Gate of Heavenly Peace
, Small Happiness, First Moon, All Under Heaven, and Abode of Illusion.
Hinton has a Ph.D. in Art History from Harvard University
and has held teaching positions at Swarthmore, Wellesley, MIT
, and Northeastern. In addition, she has lectured widely on Chinese culture, history, and film at educational institutions both in the United States and around the world.
, the ABCNEWS VideoSource and Pare Lorentz Awards by the International Documentary Association, and a National News & Documentary Emmy Award.
Her films have also received wide acclaim in both the popular press and in academic journals. Morning Sun-about China's Cultural Revolution—is "a stunning new documentary film" (Newsweek), "an astonishing mix of propaganda and news footage ... an illuminating look at China's dark time" (The Boston Globe), and "transfixing" (The New York Times). The Gate of Heavenly Peace
-about the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests-"is a deep, powerful and rivetingly complex study of Tiananmen" (Newsweek), "enthralling" (The New York Times), and "one of the great documentaries of the past 20 years" (Boston Phoenix). One Village in China provides "an empathetic introduction to a handful of people who live in a complexly textured world of large power constellations, intimate social relations and deep moral dilemmas" (Journal of Asian Studies). Small Happiness is "invaluable for both general audiences and the academic community" (Smithsonian Institution).
Her films have been shown in numerous film festivals worldwide, including New York
, Berlin
, Hong Kong
, Vancouver
, and San Francisco. They have also been screened at the Film Forum in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Smithsonian Institution
in Washington, D.C.
, among others, and broadcast on television stations around the world, including PBS
, the BBC
, and ARTE
.
as one of the best web resources in the fields of Social Sciences and Humanities. It is also rated as an essential educational resource by the Internet Guide for China Studies at Heidelberg University.
In 1997, Hinton assisted the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, in a unique project to bring a Qing dynasty house from China's Anhui province to the U.S. The house, known as Yin Yu Tang, has been reassembled at the Peabody, where it provides an extraordinary opportunity for visitors to learn about Chinese architecture, traditional culture, and daily life.
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
filmmaker and Clarence J. Robinson Professor of Visual Culture and Chinese Studies at George Mason University
George Mason University
George Mason University is a public university based in unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, south of and adjacent to the city of Fairfax. Additional campuses are located nearby in Arlington County, Prince William County, and Loudoun County...
, in Fairfax
Fairfax, Virginia
The City of Fairfax is an independent city forming an enclave within the confines of Fairfax County, in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Although politically independent of the surrounding county, the City is nevertheless the county seat....
, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. She was born and raised in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
, China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
, by American parents, and lived there until she was twenty-one. Chinese is her first language and culture. Together with Richard Gordon, Hinton has directed thirteen documentary films about China, including Morning Sun, The Gate of Heavenly Peace
The Gate of Heavenly Peace (documentary)
The Gate of Heavenly Peace is a 1995 documentary film, produced by Richard Gordon and Carma Hinton, about the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.-Synopsis:...
, Small Happiness, First Moon, All Under Heaven, and Abode of Illusion.
Hinton has a Ph.D. in Art History from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
and has held teaching positions at Swarthmore, Wellesley, MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
, and Northeastern. In addition, she has lectured widely on Chinese culture, history, and film at educational institutions both in the United States and around the world.
Films
Hinton has received many awards for her work in film. Among these are two George Foster Peabody Awards, the American Historical Association's John E. O'Connor Film Award, the International Critics Prize and the Best Social and Political Documentary at the Banff Television Festival, and nominations for Best Documentary Feature by the National Film Board of CanadaNational Film Board of Canada
The National Film Board of Canada is Canada's twelve-time Academy Award-winning public film producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary, animation, alternative drama and digital media productions...
, the ABCNEWS VideoSource and Pare Lorentz Awards by the International Documentary Association, and a National News & Documentary Emmy Award.
Her films have also received wide acclaim in both the popular press and in academic journals. Morning Sun-about China's Cultural Revolution—is "a stunning new documentary film" (Newsweek), "an astonishing mix of propaganda and news footage ... an illuminating look at China's dark time" (The Boston Globe), and "transfixing" (The New York Times). The Gate of Heavenly Peace
The Gate of Heavenly Peace (documentary)
The Gate of Heavenly Peace is a 1995 documentary film, produced by Richard Gordon and Carma Hinton, about the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.-Synopsis:...
-about the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests-"is a deep, powerful and rivetingly complex study of Tiananmen" (Newsweek), "enthralling" (The New York Times), and "one of the great documentaries of the past 20 years" (Boston Phoenix). One Village in China provides "an empathetic introduction to a handful of people who live in a complexly textured world of large power constellations, intimate social relations and deep moral dilemmas" (Journal of Asian Studies). Small Happiness is "invaluable for both general audiences and the academic community" (Smithsonian Institution).
Her films have been shown in numerous film festivals worldwide, including New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
, Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, and San Francisco. They have also been screened at the Film Forum in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, among others, and broadcast on television stations around the world, including PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
, the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, and ARTE
Arte
Arte is a Franco-German TV network. It is a European culture channel and aims to promote quality programming especially in areas of culture and the arts...
.
Other work
Hinton has also produced websites for Morning Sun and The Gate of Heavenly Peace. These sites contain thousands of pages of text in Chinese and English, along with media clips, slideshows, photographs, posters, diaries, and other images. The sites receive over twenty-thousand visitors per month, and they have been incorporated into Chinese studies courses worldwide. The Gate of Heavenly Peace website has been recognized by The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Wired, and Yahoo, among others, as one of the leading Internet resources on China. It has received an award from the Australian National UniversityAustralian National University
The Australian National University is a teaching and research university located in the Australian capital, Canberra.As of 2009, the ANU employs 3,945 administrative staff who teach approximately 10,000 undergraduates, and 7,500 postgraduate students...
as one of the best web resources in the fields of Social Sciences and Humanities. It is also rated as an essential educational resource by the Internet Guide for China Studies at Heidelberg University.
In 1997, Hinton assisted the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, in a unique project to bring a Qing dynasty house from China's Anhui province to the U.S. The house, known as Yin Yu Tang, has been reassembled at the Peabody, where it provides an extraordinary opportunity for visitors to learn about Chinese architecture, traditional culture, and daily life.
Related persons
- William HintonWilliam H. HintonWilliam Howard Hinton was an American farmer and prolific writer. A Marxist, he is best known for his book Fanshen, published in 1966, a "documentary of revolution" which chronicled the land reform conducted by the Chinese Communist Party in the 1940s in Zhangzhuangcun , sometimes translated as...
(father), author of Fanshen. - Joan HintonJoan HintonJoan Hinton was a nuclear physicist and one of the few women who worked for the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos. She lived in the People's Republic of China after 1949, where she and her husband Erwin Engst participated in China’s efforts at developing a socialist economy, working extensively in...
(aunt), a nuclear physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos, and her husband Erwin (Sid) Engst - Carmelita HintonCarmelita HintonCarmelita Hinton was an American progressive educator. She is best known as the founder in 1935 of The Putney School, a progressive boarding school in Vermont.-Early life:...
(grandmother), educator and founder of the Putney School in Vermont. - Charles Howard HintonCharles Howard HintonCharles Howard Hinton was a British mathematician and writer of science fiction works titled Scientific Romances. He was interested in higher dimensions, particularly the fourth dimension, and is known for coining the word tesseract and for his work on methods of visualising the geometry of...
(great-grandfather), mathematician and science fiction writer. - George BooleGeorge BooleGeorge Boole was an English mathematician and philosopher.As the inventor of Boolean logic—the basis of modern digital computer logic—Boole is regarded in hindsight as a founder of the field of computer science. Boole said,...
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. Clips from a film of The GadflyThe GadflyThe Gadfly is a novel by Ethel Lilian Voynich, published in 1897 , set in 1840s Italy under the dominance of Austria, a time of tumultuous revolt and uprisings. The story centers on the life of the protagonist, Arthur Burton, as a member of the Youth movement, and his antagonist, Padre Montanelli...
appear in Carma Hinton's 2003 documentary Morning SunMorning sunMorning sun may refer to:*The Sun, the Solar System's star**A sunrise*Morning Sun , a documentary film about China's Cultural Revolution*Morning Sun , an album by American country artist Barbara Mandrell... - Carma Hinton's 1995 documentary, The Gate of Heavenly Peace, includes interviews with Dai QingDai QingDai Qing, born in August 1941, is a journalist and activist for China-related issues; most significantly against the Three Gorges Dam Project. Dai is also an author who has published many influential books, articles, and journals.-Early life:Dai, also called Fu Ning , was born in Chongqing,...
, Ding ZilinDing ZilinProfessor Ding Zilin is currently the leader of the political pressure group Tiananmen Mothers.-Biography:...
, Han DongfangHan DongfangHan Dongfang has been an advocate for workers' rights in China for more than two decades during which time he has won numerous international awards including the 1993 Democracy Award from the U.S...
, Wang Dan, and Wuer Kaixi.