(FLINT, Mich., Nov. 9, 2015) – Where do all those plastic water bottles go and what sparked a feminist revolution in India? Learn the answers to these questions and gain insight into issues facing people around the world at the 14th Annual Global Issues Film Festival Nov. 17 through 22.
The Festival, sponsored by Mott Community College (MCC), Kettering University and the University of Michigan-Flint (UMF), showcases the work of independent filmmakers from around the globe, representing a variety of voices and viewpoints that challenge viewers to reach across the boundaries of language, culture and religion. Whether focused on issues half way around the world, or right here at home, these films open a dialog on topics that concern us all.
The first half of the Festival will feature four films. Unless noted, all screenings will be in the Mott Community College Regional Technology Center Auditorium on the Flint campus. The second half of the film festival will be at Kettering University, Jan. 27 through 30, 2016.
All films shown are free and open to the public.
This year’s films are:
Tuesday, Nov. 17, 5:30 p.m., *KIVA, Harding Mott University Center, UM-Flint
India’s Daughter (2015). Directed by Leslee Udwin. 63 min.
Jyoti Singh, or Nirbhaya (Fearless) as she would be known, was a medical student from a working class family in Delhi, India. India’s Daughter tells the story of Jyoti’s brutal gang rape and murder in 2012 as she rode a bus home with a friend after watching a film. Because she was outside her home at night without her family present, she was deemed eligible for sexual violence. Students of Jawaharlal Nehru University launched massive protests the very next day, sparking a national debate about rape culture and the place of girls and women in Indian society, with protests spreading to cities throughout the country. The film is currently banned in India and has incited much debate among South Asian feminists.
** This film will also be screened on Saturday, Nov. 21, at 1 p.m. at Mott Community College’s Regional Technology Center auditorium.
Friday, Nov. 20, 7 p.m.
Plastic Paradise (2013). Directed by Angela Sun. 57 min.
Every single piece of plastic that has ever been created since the 19th century is still somewhere on our planet. So if it never goes away, where does it go? In the center of the vast Pacific Ocean, Midway Atoll is one of the most remote places on earth. And yet it has become ground zero for The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, collecting plastics from three distant continents. In this film, which has won over ten international awards, journalist Angela Sun travels on a personal journey of discovery to uncover this mysterious phenomenon. Plastic Paradise demonstrates how our everyday interactions with plastic connects us to pollution at the farthest corners of our world.
Saturday, November 21, 1 p.m.
India’s Daughter (2015). Directed by Leslee Udwin. 63 min.
Saturday, November 22, 2:30 p.m.
Nada’s Revolution (2014). Directed by Claudia Lisboa. 60 min.
“Without the revolution, I would not be the person I am today.” Nada Ahmed went to Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt in 2011, and took part in the massive protests that led to the overthrow of the dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak. After the Arab Spring, she was able to fulfill her own dream, to manage a children’s theater and to teach the next generation about the meaning of the revolution. Nada’s Revolution explores the struggles of a woman who seeks a career first, and marriage second–a personal revolution in a country caught between tradition and modernity.
Sunday, November 23, 1 p.m.
Pilgrims and Tourists (2013). Directed by Christopher McLeod. 60 min.
In the Russian Republic of Altai, traditional native people create their own mountain parks, to rein in tourism and resist a gas pipeline that would cut through a World Heritage Site. Meanwhile, in northern California, Winnemem Wintu girls grind herbs on a sacred medicine rock, as elders protest U.S. government plans to enlarge one of the American West’s biggest dams and forever submerge the sacred land of this tribe. Director Toby McLeod has woven stories of first nations peoples’ resilience amidst images of searing beauty and unimagined destruction, providing insights on a growing global indigenous movement for human rights and environmental protection.
