2008 Woodie Awards
Humboldt State and College of the Redwoods kick off Latino film festival
Miriam Alatorre
Issue date: 3/19/08 Section: Community
Continuing a 10 year tradition of greater global and social awareness, Humboldt State University kicked off the Latino Film Festival at the Minor Theater in Arcata March 11 - 13.
College of the Redwoods' modern languages department and Humboldt State's Department of world languages coordinated the event. At Humboldt State and College of the Redwoods, it was offered for course credit.
The Latino Film festival was an opportunity for the world languages department to share a bit of international culture with the Arcata community, but also an opportunity to host a prominent scholar and literary and film critic, Dr. Lauro Zavala. Zavala visited from Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico in Xochimilco.
Erin O'Ryan, Humboldt State music student, said, "Dr. Zavala shared some really deep insights into the films. He has really taken the time to think about what he said. It's left me thinking."
On the last night of the film festival, a procession of 18 students dressed in black presented Latin American Revolution songs accompanied by the steady rhythm of Spanish guitars. Humboldt State Spanish student Darcy Poletti-Harp said, "There were some Chilean protest songs. We learned them for [Spanish 480] Latin American Song and Revolution."
Rebecca Thompson, manager of the Minor, said, "The Theater was jam-packed every night. There was a person in nearly every single seat in the house. I wish it was like this more often."
There was definitely a huge student crowd. Many of the people in the movie theater had a notebook and pen in hand. Many people attending the event were students there for extra credit; others were there for class credit.
Richard Snyder, College of the Redwoods mathematics student, said, "I needed a credit, so I decided this was better and more interesting than literature."
The three movies shown were La Lengua de las Mariposas (Butterfly), El Laberinto del Fauna (Pan's Labrynth) and Machuca. The movies all had child protagonists who had harsh life lessons to learn. Most of the hardships experienced by the characters were because of in times of war in the world.
"These films address moral decisions [made by people] with lasting effects," said Zavala, "[they are] cruel stories of war and pain, but also about human strength."
Will Closter, a Humboldt State Spanish student, said he was on the verge of crying.
Julia Balibrera, an undecided major at Humboldt State, said "[But] films like this are good because the raise consciousness."
College of the Redwoods' modern languages department and Humboldt State's Department of world languages coordinated the event. At Humboldt State and College of the Redwoods, it was offered for course credit.
The Latino Film festival was an opportunity for the world languages department to share a bit of international culture with the Arcata community, but also an opportunity to host a prominent scholar and literary and film critic, Dr. Lauro Zavala. Zavala visited from Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico in Xochimilco.
Erin O'Ryan, Humboldt State music student, said, "Dr. Zavala shared some really deep insights into the films. He has really taken the time to think about what he said. It's left me thinking."
On the last night of the film festival, a procession of 18 students dressed in black presented Latin American Revolution songs accompanied by the steady rhythm of Spanish guitars. Humboldt State Spanish student Darcy Poletti-Harp said, "There were some Chilean protest songs. We learned them for [Spanish 480] Latin American Song and Revolution."
Rebecca Thompson, manager of the Minor, said, "The Theater was jam-packed every night. There was a person in nearly every single seat in the house. I wish it was like this more often."
There was definitely a huge student crowd. Many of the people in the movie theater had a notebook and pen in hand. Many people attending the event were students there for extra credit; others were there for class credit.
Richard Snyder, College of the Redwoods mathematics student, said, "I needed a credit, so I decided this was better and more interesting than literature."
The three movies shown were La Lengua de las Mariposas (Butterfly), El Laberinto del Fauna (Pan's Labrynth) and Machuca. The movies all had child protagonists who had harsh life lessons to learn. Most of the hardships experienced by the characters were because of in times of war in the world.
"These films address moral decisions [made by people] with lasting effects," said Zavala, "[they are] cruel stories of war and pain, but also about human strength."
Will Closter, a Humboldt State Spanish student, said he was on the verge of crying.
Julia Balibrera, an undecided major at Humboldt State, said "[But] films like this are good because the raise consciousness."
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