The Museum of Natural and Cultural History is presenting the Margaret Mead Traveling Film and Video Festival. The festival began Friday Feb. 9 and runs for three weeks with a showing every Friday.
The event showcases a collection of documentaries put together by the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
Two documentaries have run thus far. “Al Otro Lado” by Natalia Almada tells the story of an aspiring Mexican composer who has to choose between trafficking drugs or illegally immigrating to the United States in order to better his life. “Awake Zion” by Monica Haim explores the connection between the Jewish religion and Rastafarianism through cultural ties and music.
Next Friday the museum will have its final showing, a double feature. The first documentary will be “Bride Kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan” by Peter Lom, which tells personal stories of an ancient yet lasting tradition of men abducting women they wish to marry in Kyrgyzstan. The last film will be “Children of the Decree” by Florin Iepan, which explores the lack of women’s reproductive rights in Romania. The showing will begin at 5:30 in Room 110 of the Knight Law Center.
“My sense was that it was pulling in a lot of community members who did not have any affiliation with the University,” said Sarah McClure, the museum’s Assistant Director of Public Programs and the point person for bringing the festival to the University.
McClure hopes to have the Film Festival become a yearly event. She described this year as a trial run that seemed to have gone very well. Both of the previous showings brought in more than 100 people.
The documentaries themselves met with a lot of approval.
Of “Awake Zion”, community member Heiko Koester said “it was educational as well as insightful and inspiring. It reminded me of how connected we all are.”
Admission for the show is $2 for University students and employees, $3 for general public.