Breen O' Reilly

Breen O'Reilly holds a PhD in film from Washington and has lived in China for the past eight years. He has worked in international schools in Bahrain and in Kuala Lumpur and been teaching the Baccalaureate program at the International School of Beijing (ISB) for many years.

It is not common to have Film Studies as a high school course and O'Reilly recalls that in the beginning even ISB was not too keen on it as it was felt the course was "not academic enough".

In 2006, when ISB finally approved Film Studies as part of the IB diploma, only four schools in Asia were offering it. The first batch of 15 ISB students graduated with all but one scoring the maximum seven points.

What sparked this interest in film as an academic pursuit? "When in college, I saw Straw Dogs. The talk after its screening by someone from the Dublin Film Society showed me aspects of the film that had totally escaped my attention. I realized I was such a passive viewer," says O'Reilly.

For someone who necessarily watches a great number of films, how does he see Slumdog Millionaire? "I was a bit disappointed but it is still a very well made film." When told about the controversy it has generated in India, he says he can understand that. He felt the same when he saw Angela's Ashes. "It was not an accurate portrayal [of Ireland]."

That feeling seems common to people of all nationalities with respect to movies made in their cultural context. Maybe one's nearness to the subject matter makes it difficult to comprehend all its nuances but the view from afar gives it a clearer perspective.

(China Daily April 20, 2009)