UW-Madison hosts World Cinema Day for high school students

World Cinema Day, an experimental outreach event presented by UW–Madison and the Global Film Initiative, a New York-based cinema group, premieres April 2 at the Orpheum Theatre in Madison.

The inaugural event will host more than 450 Wisconsin students and teachers representing ten high schools from Marshfield to Mukwonago.

World Cinema Day’s mission is to bring quality international cinema to Wisconsin students and teachers and promote understanding of world cultures. They will gather for a screening of the award-winning Palestinian film “Ticket to Jerusalem.” In the weeks leading up to the screening, the Global Film Initiative is offering educators a specially developed curriculum to enrich the students’ learning experience. Mary Layoun, professor of comparative literature at UW–Madison, will introduce the film and lead a post-screening discussion.

“Ticket to Jerusalem” is part of the Global Film Initiative’s “Global Lens” series, which includes ten international films. With input from an advisory committee of high school educators and representatives from the UW–Madison College of Letters and Science and the Arts Institute, “Ticket to Jerusalem” was chosen on the basis of its cinematic and narrative excellence and cultural authenticity.

“We at the initiative believe that the best way to understand other cultures is through the nuance of storytelling,” says Susan Weeks Coulter, who chairs the Global Film Initiative. “The mission of Global Lens is to make sure these films are presented to general audiences and high school students alike in a context that delivers both entertainment and a real understanding of our neighbors from around the world.”

Wisconsin Film Festival director Mary Carbine agrees with the mission of the program and sees it as a great opportunity for both high school students and the festival.

“This Global Lens series expands our commitment to presenting quality international cinema that would otherwise not be seen in Madison,” Carbine says. “The series is a terrific opportunity for the festival and for festival audiences. In partnership with the College of Letters and Science, we can for the first time offer a quality film outreach program for high school students. And finally, in partnership with the Orpheum and Cinematheque, we can extend the festival experience beyond the four-day festival.”

World Cinema Day is based on the successful model of World Languages Day, which will take place at UW–Madison April 13. During World Languages Day, more than 600 Wisconsin high school students and their teachers will participate in sessions featuring languages and cultures from around the world.

“An extension of the World Languages Day for area high schools, the World Cinema Day highlights the symbiosis of language and culture, the fact that learning about one means learning about the other,” Magdalena Hauner, associate dean of the College of Letters and Science, says. “To make this connection and implement it through learning is becoming essential in our society.”

High school teachers have been an invaluable resource in the preparation and implantation of the outreach program. Catherine Reiland, coordinator of World Languages Day, says, “It has been a pleasure and honor to join hands with Wisconsin’s talented educators. Participating teachers have enthusiastically shared their expertise on how to best implement the film curriculum in the classroom.”

High schools participating in World Cinema Day include: Beloit Memorial; Craig High School in Janesville; East, West and Edgewood high schools in Madison; Marshfield High School; Middleton Alternative High School; Rufus King International Baccalaureate High School in Milwaukee; Mukwonago High School; and Sparta Alternative Independent Learning School.

The April 2 event begins at 1:45 p.m. Students are expected to begin arriving at the Orpheum at 1:15 p.m.

“Ticket to Jerusalem,” as well as the other films in the “Global Lens” series, will be screened to the public during and after the Wisconsin Film Festival April 1-4 at both the Orpheum Theatre and UW Cinematheque.

Madison is one of 12 regional partners nationwide chosen by the Global Film Initiative to host the series, and is the only Wisconsin site. Other partners include the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Boston Museum of Fine Art, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and Chicago’s Gene Siskel Film Center. The local presentation of Global Lens and the accompanying youth outreach program are supported by the Evjue Foundation, the Human Relations Committee of the Wisconsin Education Association Council and the Brittingham Fund.

For more information or a complete schedule of World Cinema Day activities or its sister program, World Languages Day, visit http://polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/world/, or contact Reiland at (608) 262-4077 or globalfilm@wifilmfest.org. For more information about the Global Film Initiative, see http://www.globalfilm.org.

Additional details about the Wisconsin Film Festival can be found at www.wifilmfest.org or by calling (877) 963-FILM.