Film Club Teaches Diversity With Foreign Titles

by Markkus Rovito
THE POST, (Ohio Univeristy; February 21, 1996)
As the Motion Picture Academy has recognized the Italian film, The Postman, by nominating it for numerous awards, there may be something special about foreign films.
The members of the International Film Club certainly think so. Since the Spring Quarter of 1995, the club has gone to great lengths to show and promote as many international films as its budget allows.
This year, the seven officers of the club have put together a schedule for each quarter consisting of five films from five different countries that deal with a mutual theme.
J. Cuasay, first-year graduate student of film and president of the International Film Club, said this quarter's films "were all concerned with how we construct personal and cultural identity."
This quarter the club has shown movies from France, Cuba and Senegal. Tonight at 7 in Lindley 321, the club will screen Birthplace, a 47-minute film from Polish Director Pauel Lozinski. The picture is about a man who had escaped from his German-occupied hometown during World War II.
The club officers order the 16mm films directly from distributors in New York City. A number of factors, including price and availability, determines which movies are selected. Projectionist for the club, first-year graduate student Richie Sherman, said, "We're trying to keep away from the mainstream films that you'd be able to see in this town."
Next quarter's selections have already been made. Cuasay said next quarter's theme is war and "how war is legitimized for issues of religion and nation."
Members of the club agree that a knowledge of international films is useful to all audiences for the educational aspects of foreign cultures, and to filmmakers for the study of techniques not frequently used in American films.
Assistant Professor of International Cinema Jenny Lau said she thinks a multi-cultural appreciation of art forms is key to artistic development.
"Historically speaking, whenever there is a renaissance it is always because two or more cultures are meeting," Lau said.
Next Wednesday's screening of My Twentieth Century, a Hungarian film, will be the last screening of the quarter for the International Film Club. The story deals with the drastically different development of twin sisters.
Editor's Note: Tonight's showing of Birthplace is open to the public. Admission is $2.