The English and Modern Language Department featured films from different cultures and languages around world. The showings started on March 20 and will end on the 29, switching between Blackwell Ballroom around Hull Auditorium
On March 20, the first film, La Gran Familia Española (Family United), a movie from Spain about romance, family and acceptance, was shown. The movie starts with the protagonist asking his crush to marry him around the age of ten, they agree to marry when they are 18. Even so, their wedding day doesn’t go as planned, but the couple and their family members learn more about differences in love and acceptance in one day than they have throughout their lives.
“I liked it, it was funny,” said sophomore Kimberly Herrling, German major and Spanish minor. “I learned the importance of not settling for someone you don’t actually love.”
The languages of the films ranged from Spanish, German, French and even Japanese. There are subtitles in English to help students understand the films. Most, if not all of the films this year have a theme of learning to accept the unexpected and difficult times in life.
“I think it’s good and bad, good because you can learn different languages, based on the sounds, catch certain phrases and words from it,” said Khalid Alotaibi, criminal justice major. “But also bad, because you can’t fully enjoy the movie.”
One of the films, produced in 2013, Father Like Son, involves two families both having sons that were switched at birth. The families are not aware of the switch until a single incident, after which the film follows the two families as they try to work out a solution. The theme is on struggling to understand and accept someone who is not blood-related and grew up in a different home.
By showing these films, not only can it allow students to have a different perspective on situations they may be faced with, but it can also provide a different perspective when it comes to accepting a person that is different from oneself. One of the films from Argentina, produced in 2014, will feature six different stories of individuals all dealing with a distressing situation and their separate reactions to it.
“I’m a language nerd, of course I love foreign films," said Herrling. “There’s extra credit (for class) if we write our opinion on the film. The movies are used to show the students about different cultures and help the students understand how to use their language skills in a natural environment and encourages students in using their languages skills in the real world after college.
