SIUE’s Film Society Hosts First Public Screening
After relaunching under new leadership last fall, the Film Society in the College of Arts and Sciences at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville is off to a promising start this spring having hosted its first public screening of the 1955 Indian Bengali-language drama film Pather Panchali.
A club under the Department of Mass Communications, the Film Society is led by Bikash Pokharel, an international student from Nepal who is pursuing his master’s in media studies.
According to Pokharel, such screening of international films promotes cultural awareness among movie lovers within the University community.
“I feel that the Film Society has a very good theme,” said Pokharel. “It is a great space for the film enthusiast to earn about other cultures and how stories are portrayed in different societies.”
When the Film Society was being relaunched last year, Musonda Kapatamoyo, PhD, chair of the Department of Mass Communications, hailed the students’ efforts in trying to keep the club alive.
“We have four students that are very gung-ho about it,” Kapatamoyo said in an interview with SIUE campus newspaper The Alestle. “The four of them decided to restart this thing… they will basically be doing the same thing that was done in the past as far as requesting films from directors, bringing them here and then discussing every aspect of it –– not just watching it and enjoying it, but going deeper into how it was made.”
The Film Society plans to screen and explore production aspects of different films throughout the spring semester.
Photo: Members of SIUE’s Film Society join for a screening of Pather Panchali.
