Sarah Blain
Troy University’s library staff and Pragda Film Company, a film distribution company, have teamed up to bring the Spanish Film Festival to Troy.
The film festival started last semester when the library was accepted for a grant to screen films that demonstrated Spanish history. This year, the library received another grant due to the festival’s success.
From addiction to a cow falling from the sky, the movies selected for this semester are key examples of what Spanish films can bring.
“All of this is possible through the library,” said Rachel Fournier, a Spanish lecturer for Troy University. The Wallace Hall library, with the help of Lisa Vardaman, the education and instructional media librarian, sent an application to Pragda, and was accepted for a grant to show the movies.
Along with each movie, different professors in the Spanish department, who each picked a film, will provide a slideshow and discuss the subject, directors, awards and reviews of the movie.
The main goal for the film festival is to show another world.
“We don’t want to just encourage people to learn Spanish, but we want to promote the Spanish-speaking world,” Fournier said.
For some students, these films will also tie in with classes that Johanna Alberich, an assistant professor of Spanish, teaches on Troy’s main campus.
“(Students) can see something they don’t usually see,” Alberich said.
Fournier said that the Spanish Film Festival is not just for Spanish students.
“It doesn’t matter what your major is or what you are planning on doing in the future,” she said. “It is something that will be useful when you are able to communicate with others.”
The first movie shown this semester, “Un Cuento Chino” or “Chinese Take-Away,” will be shown on Sept. 10. It is cataloged as a comedy.
The screenings of these films are open to the public. The movies will be shown in Patterson Hall on the dates listed at 4 p.m. in room 103. There will be English subtitles accompanying the films.
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