The World Languages and Cultures Department kicked off their film festival with a cinematic experience from Cuba Thursday.
The festival took place at 7 p.m. in Neumiller Lecture Hall, and the movie shown was “Fresa y Chocolate” (Strawberry and Chocolate), the story of two men with different political ideals who become friends in Fidel Castro’s Cuba.
“The individual language sections within the World Languages and Cultures Department get together and decide which films to show, sometimes based on popularity of the film and others, like the Spanish section’s selection of “Strawberry and Chocolate,” based on political events, such as warming relations between Cuba and the US,” Spanish assistant professor James Courtad said.
This is not the first time the World Languages and Cultures Department has hosted a film festival, and Courtad said it’s important to give the campus community opportunities to see films they might not otherwise get shown at local movie theaters.
Courtad also said he believes this event gave the community the chance to see what topics are important in the cultural production of other countries, and the department hopes to entice people to learn more about other cultures.
“My teacher was going, and I’m really good friends with my teacher, so she suggested it to me, and I didn’t have anything else to do tonight,” freshmen theater major Jeffery Manus said. “I wouldn’t consider myself a huge film buff, but it seems interesting.”
“We traditionally show three films per semester in French, German and in Spanish,” French associate professor and department chair Alexander Hertich said. “The French language film will be shown on Oct. 22 and the German film on Nov. 19.”
As of today, the other two movie titles have yet to be chosen.
