Rossana Woo
Hitting Pierce College theaters next week is the first-ever film festival, “Celebrating Diversity.”
Headed by Sylvia Silva, compliance officer and chairwoman of the Diversity Committee, the film festival will take place from April 23 to 27 in various places on campus.
The goal of the film festival is to demonstrate the idea that culture and ethnic identity are not what defines individuals, according to Silva.
Among the many films shown during will be the main films “Transamerica” and “Munich.”
The headliner film, “Crash”, will be shown the last day of the festival in the main theater on the Art Hill.
Admission to the films is free for the entire Pierce community, students and faculty members alike.
Other films such as “The Motorcycle Diaries” will only be open to students who need to view the film as part of their class curriculum. Fernando Oleas, instructor at Pierce, is leading faculty involvement on that project.
Although there will be no student films being screened, exhibits featuring student artwork will be shown in the Pierce Art Gallery the entire week of the festival.
On the last day of the festival, there will be a student awards ceremony during which awards will be presented to students in the categories of photography, poetry and short film.
The idea for the film festival came from the Diversity Committee. They believed it was a good idea to show films because, according to Silva, diversity is celebrated best through films.
“As part of the festival, we decided to use films already in existence,” Silva said.
The decision makers who chose the films included administration, faculty, classified staff and a student representative.
Abraham White, president of the Associated Students Organization, was the student representative. He worked with the committee on planning the event and also took ideas from the committee back to the ASO to get further input.
“What I’m really most excited about is, not just watching these movies, but the fact that this gives students a chance to talk about these issues in a comfortable environment,” White said.
“These are controversial, hot-button issues. But the fact that the whole college is coming together to highlight them and address them, I think it’s a really healthy way of communicating for the students here,” he said.
Unity and diversity is also the main goal of the Bahá’√≠ club on campus.
Ashkan Rajabi, president of the Bahá’√≠ club, is looking forward to participating in the film festival.
“We have different nationalities and different people on campus, people from different cultures and different countries. It’s really good to bring all of them together and discuss the topic (of diversity),” he said.
To help the Diversity Committee plan future events, a survey was created with questions geared toward getting a better understanding of each student on campus.
This will be given to some professors to distribute in class as well as being accessible online.
E-mails provided by students on the survey will be entered into a raffle with the prize being a gift card to the Freudian Sip.
Funding for the festival will be provided by a faculty and staff fund, other departments on campus and anyone who is willing to donate money or provide a sponsorship, according to Silva.
What Silva is looking forward to the most is that the film festival will be a wonderful experience for everyone.
“With appreciation, comes understanding,” she said.
For more information on the “Celebrating Diversity” Film Festival, visit:
http://www.piercecollege.org/offices/diversity/filmfestival/filmfestival.html