Bluegrass Film Society 2006/2007: 24 Films, From 24 Countries, in 24 Weeks

Bluegrass Film Society 2006/2007: 24 Films, From 24 Countries, in 24 Weeks

In a globalized world it is imperative that we begin to develop a broader awareness of the interconnected cultures and societies that influence and shape world events. Anyone remotely aware of the American social landscape must recognize that many of our citizens are unaware of the broader relations and connections of the world in which they live in. Many Americans tend to have a narrow understanding of world history, filtered as it is through ethnocentric American textbooks and mediatized narratives filtered through the lenses of the dominant center, which effectively ignores the realities of the margins (culturally, economically and socially). Many concerned citizens struggle to carve out meaning in the contemporary data stream and suffer the neglect of a mainstream media that limits itself to predigested dualistic positions. In this simplified media environment, vast regions of the world are presumed to be unable to speak for themselves and rarely, in the mainstream media that serves as the news for a majority of American citizens, do we receive sustained and in-depth critical analysis of issues through the voices and experiences of multiple interested parties.

With this in mind I began last year to develop the Bluegrass Film Society as a forum for increasing the awareness of different cultures, histories and perspectives. We presented a broad-ranging selection of films that were chosen to represent multiple voices and realities. As I start the second year of the BFS I remain committed to bringing to our campus and community a program that will continue to expand our awareness of world cultures, histories and experiences. This Fall/Spring 2006/2007 schedule is a journey of 24 films, from 24 countries, in 24 weeks. The BFS is set up as an extension of my film courses for my students, but keeping Bluegrass Community and Technical College’s mission to serve the community in mind, we open this up to all interested community members. All showings are at 7:30 pm and are free of charge. We hope you will join us. The final dates will be available on the website in August and we also have a listserv that sends out notices for each film being showed. If you would like to be added to the listserv please leave your email in the comment section to this post.

BFS Fall 2006/Spring 2007 Films:

Ghost in the Shell (Mamoru Oshii: Japan, 1995) 82 mins

Kontroll (Nimrod Antal: Hungary, 2003) 105 mins

The Edukators (Hans Weingartner: Germany, 2004) 127 mins

Dirty Pretty Things (Stephen Frears: British, 2002) 97 mins

Pickaxe (Tim Lewis and Tim Ream: US, 1999) 94 mins

Farewell My Concubine (Kaige Chen: China, 1993) 156 mins

House of Fools (Andrei Konchalovsky: Russia, 2002) 104 mins

No Man's Land (Danis Tonavic: Bosnia, 2001) 98 mins

What Time Is It There? (Ming-liang Tsai: Taiwan, 2001) 116 mins

Bad Education (Pedro Almodovar: Spain, 2004) 106 mins

The Celebration (Thomas Vinterberg: Denmark, 1998) 105 mins

101 Reykjavik (Baltasar Kormakur: Iceland, 2000) 88 mins

Hop (Dominique Standaert: Belgium, 2002)

Carandiru (Hector Babenco: Brazil, 2003) 146 mins

Tsotsi (Gavin Hood: South Africa, 2005) 94 mins

The Tracker (Rolf de Heer: Australia, 2002) 90 mins and Gulpilil: One Red Blood (Darlene Johnson: Australia, 2002) 56 mins

Time of the Wolf (Michael Haneke: Austrian Director/French Film, 2003) 114 mins

Taste of Cherry (Abbas Kiarostami: Iran, 1997) 95 mins

Amores Perros (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu: Mexico, 2000) 153 mins

Code Unknown (Michael Haneke: Austrian Director/French Film, 2000) 118 mins

In the Mood for Love (Kar Wai Wong: Hong Kong, 2000) 98 mins

Lady Vengeance (Chan Wook-Park: South Korea, 2005) 112 mins

The Magdalene Sisters (Peter Mullan: Ireland, 2002) 119 mins