“A success” was how Sylvia Silva, event organizer, described Pierce College’s first ever Diversity Film Festival from April 23 to April 27.
“It was really interesting listening to their interaction with the faculty afterwards and asking them questions in a more informal setting as opposed to a classroom,” said Silva.
The Diversity Film Festival featured four films that were open to the public, “Sissy French Fry,” “Transamerica,” “Munich” and “Crash” which were shown at the Performing Arts Building. After each film, there was a discussion board for students, faculty and professors to discuss the rigors of social clashes.
For event organizer, Fernando Oleas, Spanish and cultural studies professor, he felt that the event was “an incredible experience.”
“We have managed to engage our student body and our faculty as well and they created social discussions among students and professors alike,” he said.
For Pierce student Megan Farrens, in her opinion, she felt that the event “definitely achieved awareness of issues that a lot of us think about, but don’t think about as much as we should,” she continued.
“It brought out a lot of the similarities that we all have, private interests, crossing the boundaries of what makes us different and what makes us similar,” she said.
The Diversity Film Festival hosted an estimated 300 people total, which included classroom screenings for some individual classes. After each film, there was a discussion board to discuss certain cultural aspects of the films shown between both students and faculty.
“Some of them got a little heated, especially the ‘Munich’ discussion.
“A lot of us disagreed on certain things, but we listen to other people opinion which I think helps us opens our minds to other peoples opinions, which is essential,” said Farrens.
Also at the Diversity Film Festival were two competitions meant for students to “express their vision of diversity in whichever way they wanted to,” as described by Sylvia Silva.
The two criteria up for grabs were poetry and photography. First place won $200, second $100 and third $75.
In the poetry contest, Teri Damson claimed first place for her poem “Different yet the same.”
Second place went to Deborah Casaje for “Work of Art.” And finally third place went to Keido Ushijima-Mwesigwa for “Through the norm.”
In the photography contest first place was awarded to Rochelle Watkins for “Wisdom, beauty, unity.”
In second place was Yvonne K. Kleinman for “Friendship is universal.”
And in third place was Kiyomi Kikuchi for “Portrait of an Asian Woman.”
Though the Diversity Film Festival is now over, there are plans for it to come back as a yearly event.
“This is only the beginning; perhaps we’re already planning and learning from this experience.
“We’re hoping to project this into the future, five, six, seven, eight years I mean this is only the beginning,” said an enthusiastic Oleas.