The Center for International Studies collaborated with the School of Media Arts and Studies and the Scripps College of Communication to present the International Student Documentary Film Festival Sunday.
Celebrating the 60th anniversary of CIS, faculty and students gathered at 7 p.m. in Schoonover Center, located at 20 E. Union St. The event was free for all attendees.
Several short films were featured, including one directed by Zohal Nasrat, an alumnus of Ohio University. Titled “Aftershock of a Trauma,” this film follows Nasrat’s personal experience of watching her home country, Afghanistan, fall to the Taliban after coming to OU.
Gerard Chukwu, a master's student studying information and telecommunication systems, discussed what he was looking forward to with the event.
“I look forward to mind change … We hope that through this show, and hopefully there’ll be more to come, (others) will get to understand people’s experiences,” Chukwu said.
To Chukwu, this event is important because it showcases the different cultures of international students. Although he is from Nigeria, Chukwu said he could learn about other African cultures through the documentary festival.
“The international (students) learn about the international (students) because I’m from Nigeria, and Ghanaians might learn about my culture and what it’s like to be Nigerian, and vice versa as well,” Chukwu said. “Cultural competency is the summary of one thing.”
Chukwu said it is important for the university to hold these events to promote a plethora of different voices enrolled at OU.
“The end goal is to ensure that this campus is diverse, not just in identity, but then with the cultures, the languages, the traditions,” Chukwu said.
Brian Plow, a professor of media arts and studies, helped organize the event. Plow said this event was a long time in the making.
“We’re celebrating along with the 60th anniversary of the CIS, and we’re using that as a platform to celebrate 10 years of international student documentaries,” Plow said.
Plow said the films featured represent a vast group of cultures and identities, extending from many different populations and cultures.
“We have a range of documentaries made by people from all over the world, I think, in terms of who made the film and who appears in the film,” Plow said. “We’re representing upwards of 20 different countries from five different continents.”
The festival showcased all sorts of topics, presenting fun, lively films to serious, heavy films. Plow also discussed the importance of the university having this event.
“For us, to celebrate the CIS as being one of the core pillars of that community,” Plow said. “Then to have an event like this that celebrates storytelling and the stories that oftentimes we don’t get to know and see and hear and enjoy.”
Plow said college students should come to events similar to the festival to broaden their knowledge and horizons.
“What a great way to spend an evening and to see stories that really are by and about people from all over the world, and have that really help you grow as a human being,” Plow said.
Parwana Hamdam, a first-year Ph.D student at Scripps College of Communications, thought this event was a great way to promote cross-cultural exchange.
“I think by these documentaries and screening we can promote diversity a lot, so I think that’s very important to bring on the screen and have students together to watch,” Hamdam said.
Hamdam said OU is a university filled with many international students, and it’s important for them to be welcomed into the environment.
“If international students are coming here, the environment should be appropriate for them, and it only happens when awareness is there,” Hamdam said.
The International Student Documentary Film Festival provided a space and time for students and faculty to gather to learn more about diverse and different cultures.
“Learn not just about the world, but also about yourself relative to the world,” Plow said.
