World Cinema Day introduces international culture

Wisconsin high school students and their teachers from across the state will have the opportunity to see the award-winning Algerian film “Daughter of Keltoum” and talk with its director and star when they visit the university’s 2005 World Cinema Day on Friday, April 1.

Ten schools and more than 550 students from Madison to Plymouth to Sparta will be represented at the screening of and discussion about the 2001 film. The event is an outreach partnership of the UW–Madison http://languageinstitute.wisc.edu and the Arts Institute’s Wisconsin Film Festival.

The participating high schools include East, Edgewood, SAPAR/Affiliated Alternatives and West – all in Madison; Milton High School; Mount Horeb High School; Plymouth High School; Sparta Alternative Independent Learning School; Tomah High School; and Wisconsin Heights in Mazomanie.

Sally Magnan, director of the Language Institute, and Reem Hilal, graduate student at UW–Madison in African languages and literature, will introduce the film and lead a discussion afterward with director Mehdi Charef and star Baya Bellal.

“‘Daughter of Keltoum’ is for me about identity, its complexities and our lifelong search to understand all its dimensions,” Hilal says. “This film is not just about the protagonist but about all of us discovering what makes us whom we are.”

UW–Madison’s screening of “Daughter of Keltoum” is part of a larger series, the Global Film Initiative’s Global Lens, which includes 10 international films. UW–Madison is one of 14 organizations and the only site in Wisconsin to take part in the Global Lens initiative.

UW–Madison has joined state and national organizations in designating 2005 the Year of Languages. According to Magdalena Hauner, associate dean of the UW–Madison College of Letters and Science, which houses the more than 60 languages UW–Madison teaches, international understanding is crucial in today’s society, and cinema is an incisive tool in bringing this about.

“World Cinema Day highlights the symbiosis of language and culture – learning about one means learning about the other,” Hauner says.

Language Institute director Magnan says that this film can offer an initial introduction to other cultures for the high school students. “International films help us see other worlds. They can offer first insights into them, promoting greater sensitivity and understanding,” she says.

However, the benefits are not just flowing from the university to the high schools. Catherine Reiland, World Cinema Day coordinator, says that the high school teachers recognize the educational value of international and enthusiastically exchange ways of using it in the classroom.

In partnership with the Wisconsin Film Festival, “Daughter of Keltoum” will be screened at 1 p.m. at the Orpheum Theatre in Madison, with its discussion session immediately following.

The public is invited to see all the Global Lens films as part of the Wisconsin Film Festival, Thursday, March 31-Sunday, April 3. Visit http://www.wifilmfest.org for a schedule, ticket information or other details. For more information on World Cinema Day, visit http://languageinstitute.wisc.edu/wcd.