Carnegie Mellon International Film Festival

Every year, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) puts on an International Film Festival, in which over a dozen films from all over the world are shown in various venues throughout Pittsburgh. This year, the theme is 'Faces of Others,' which, in the words of our director, Jolanta Lion is defined as such:

"How do we define the Other? The term Other can be defined as anyone or anything that is not us. At first a seemingly simple notion, under careful consideration the term becomes more ambiguous and complex. An Other can be identified as anyone of a different culture, language, religion, gender, appearance, sexual preference, personality, world view, the list could go on. In contrast, an Other can also be something very familiar to us: our family, our desires, or even ourselves in times when our thoughts and actions do not seem to align with the person we thought we were.

In the midst of these musings, our minds begin to wonder. Is it possible to understand the Other? Is it possible, in a world full of binary relationships, to know who the Other is: the citizen or the foreigner, the parent or the child, the audience or the film? Perhaps most importantly, can the Other even exist? Or is the Other just our mind's creation used to explain that which is different from us?"

I find these words to be beautiful, and I have learned, and am continuing to learn more and more with each event. I found myself especially attracted to the internship, as "Other" is a huge facet within cultural anthropology. These films have added another meaning to the word, as I watch the stories play out on the screen.

This weekend three of the directors will be in town, and it will certainly add a new dimension to the film to be able to have a question and answer session with the director following the screening. I encourage anyone and everyone to check it out: www.cmu.edu/faces. On this site, you will find the event schedule, ticketing prices, locations of the theaters and more!

I've also met a lot of wonderful people through this internship. Not just the director of the festival, or the film directors, or the guests, but also my fellow interns. They are all such great people from both CMU and Pitt, and we have worked so well together to help this festival run as smoothly as possible. Check out all of the interns here! That video is shown to introduce the major events of the festival to show all of our hard work, and displays our individuality-even though we all worked together, we are each an "Other" ourselves.

Come check it out!! You won't regret it!