This website is a roadmap of my writing, although I am aware that much of the story takes place in the spaces in-between.
In the U.S., I have moved from San Francisco to the sunny Southeast, and from Hawaii to the grey skies and cultural splendor of Cleveland. I grew up in Louisville, Kentucky and St. Louis, Missouri in a family of social workers and musicians. (I am the sister of jazz musician and composer Marty Ehrlich, and I was a member of the Waseda University/Tokyo Classical Guitar Society.)
As a student I lived on the island of Shikoku (Japan), on a kibbutz in the Galilee (Israel), in Kyoto, and in India. My M.A. degrees are from the University of Michigan and Southern Illinois University. I was fortunate to spend four years at the University of Hawaii sponsored by a doctoral grant from the East-West Center. My Ph.D. program brought me into contact with people across the Asia-Pacific region.
My involvement with Film Studies extends back to the time when I assisted with the Hawaii International Film Festival. Wherever I have traveled—Bangkok, Madrid, Tokyo, Chennai, Rio de Janeiro, Tel Aviv, Cape Town, Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon—I have interviewed directors, cinematographers and actors; viewed archival films, and visited film studios. I deeply appreciate the warm welcome I’ve received from members of the film communities in those countries.
At the University of Tennessee/Knoxville (as Asst. /Assoc. Professor), I curated a three-city Asia-
Pacific Film Festival, co-sponsored by the East-West Center. At Case Western Reserve University (as
Associate Professor), I curated film series on “Childhoods,” and on “Rarely Seen Japanese Cinema,”
co-sponsored by the Cleveland Cinematheque and the Japan Foundation. Drawing on my interest in
world dance, I have designed and taught courses on: Dance on Screen, Shadow play/East and West,
Understanding Dance, and Asian Theatre and Cinema, among others.
I taught two semesters on the Semester-at-Sea program. An especially fortunate grant allowed me to spend three weeks at the Liguria Study Center (Bogliasco Foundation) near Genoa, Italy, and later to co-coordinate a small conference there. I also received a Fulbright Specialist fellowship to offer a 2-week workshop “Border Crossings” at the University of Granada (Spain). For Smithsonian Journeys I’ve lectured to travelers in Spain and Portugal.
Moving between Asia and southern Europe seems to suit me. My writings about the Japanese director KORE-EDA Hirokazu, and my commentaries on remastered DVDs of his first film Maborosi and his second film After Life complement the writing and commentary I did in earlier years about the films of Spanish director Víctor Erice.
The lyric essay, scholarly essay, poetry, memoir are all writing forms that enter into the “braided narrative” of my life.
Image above taken at Cleveland Museum of Art. Sculpture by Juan Luis Buñuel.