Non-mainstream Groups Find
Community Through Films at UW

Suddenly, you’re family, drawn together by a mutual and compelling desire to see a particular film. This instant-community phenomenon decisively separates the experience of seeing a movie in a theater from watching a video at home.

Organizers of several film series at the University of Wisconsin–Madison say an important function of their programs is building community, forging important ties to the external community, as well as strengthening bonds among members of a particular group.

“We wait for these films. We try to see as many of them as we can,” says Janie Ocejo, a senior in political science and social work originally from San Antonio.

Ocejo is referring to the Chicano Studies Film Series, which presents monthly screenings of work by and about Chicanos and Latinos. Last week, for example, Ocejo and her friends saw a program of short subjects that included music videos; “Driveby,” an anti-violence piece; a Chicano folk art documentary; and an experimental video about memory and the new moon.

Amy Ling, professor of English and Asian American Studies and director of the Asian American Studies Program, says film is a particularly effective medium of instruction as well as entertainment. The Asian American Studies Program film series, now in its sixth year, takes full advantage of that, she says.

“We hope our film festival will inspire people of many backgrounds to look into an American experience that might be different from their own,” she says, adding that many of the experiences presented in the series could be new even to Asian-American audiences.

Ling cites “Bontoc Eulogy” (March 20) as a case in point. A documentary about the filmmaker’s grandfather, exhibited at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair as an “anthropological specimen” from the Philippines, the film examines “a moment of history and its impact, which can be felt down to the present,” Ling says.

Both Ling and Susan Kepecs, organizer of the Chicano Film Series, say their events are usually very well patronized, with audiences climbing toward 100 at each screening. Organizers of the “Light in the East” festival, which presents contemporary work from East Asia, say the films have played to capacity audiences.

Seema Kapani, assistant director of International Student and Scholar Services, says she isn’t surprised. She says non-English language films and other events give members of the university’s international community a brief respite from the demands of a new and sometimes very taxing environment.

“When they go to an international film or performance, they have a chance to enter another, perhaps more familiar, cultural realm,” she says.