International Film Series: Migration & Exile

Thursday, September 19, 2024

5:30 pm -

“Roughly 281 million people around the world are on the move, representing 3.6 % of the world population.” UN News 21 May 2024

This international film series features contemporary tales of migration and exile as told by compelling directors and actors, offering multiple perspectives on what it means to live unmoored from the guarantees of social inclusion or the continuities of cultural tradition.

The series will present six films over two semesters, each briefly introduced by a professor from the Department of Modern & Classical Languages. An informal discussion will follow each viewing.

The three films for the fall semester highlight stories of migration in the Western hemisphere: Indians to the USA, Algerians to Canada, and indigenous people to Mexico City. The stories they tell hit upon issues of assimilation and contested identity, social justice and family loyalty, social class and the forced intimacies of domestic labor.

The films for the spring semester feature characters struggling to realize their deepest desires. A 50-year-old woman in Malaysia seeks to marry her younger boyfriend, an immigrant from Sierra Leone. A Korean family tries to make a go of farming in the American Ozarks. Two teenagers from Senegal undertake an odyssey to reach Europe across the Sahara Desert.

International movie snacks will be served!

Presented by MCL, CLASS/HONORS, and the Institute for Global Engagement