Anthropology Graduate Student Association (AGSA) is hosting its first ethnographic film festival on Thursday on campus at Cal State University Long Beach.
The festival will feature films that showcase various topics such as alternative cultures, crafting, video games, environmental issues and human rights topics.
Associate professor for the department of anthropology Steven Rousso-Schindler said that historically, film has been used in anthropology as a tool to show unfamiliar, non-Western and often-indigenous cultures to westerners.
At the same time, film is used as a way to ‘preserve’ non-Western cultural practices that were slowly eroding because of encroaching Western cultures, he said.
“At CSULB, the Department of Anthropology sees film as one of several ways to convey anthropological knowledge to the students in our classes and the public at large,” Rousso-Schindler said. “As for CSULB anthropology students, they use film as an aesthetic way to tell unique ethnographic stories about the cultures for which they are most passionate.”
President of AGSA Ambyr Hardy said that in order to choose movies for the film festival, the AGSA Film Fest committee made selections based on how well each contrasted or complimented on another; allotted time and relevance was also taken into account.
“We liked being able to represent local interests, environmental issues and cultural issues, including popular, alternative and traditional,” Hardy said. “We also liked presenting a range of student films to show what students are capable of.”
The event will run approximately 4 hours, and will have many other things to offer, said Hardy.
The film festival will feature student films from the CSULB anthropology and film departments, as well as USC and UCSC. The films will be followed by Q & A segments that will allow attendees to discuss and explore the movies with the creators.
“We liked the diverse range of topics and perspectives,” Hardy said. “We felt it was important to reach a wide audience while still maintaining our goal of presenting.”
Hardy said that since the project’s inception, the goal is to provide “awesome student non-fiction films about humans and culture.”
The fest will begin at 4 p.m. with films from the other universities including: “Wallerstein” by Kristi Oken, “Breakwater” by Shenendoa Bennett and “I Am Handmade” by Samantha Close.
Intermission will roll around 6:30 p.m. with free food provided by Food Not Bombs an independent group of collectives that serves vegan and vegetarian foods.
The event will resume with CSULB Anthropology film showcase after the break with student films like “Brasa Oma” by Danielle Castillo, “Elm Kids” by Maura Cotter and “Time to Grow” by Daniel Corson and Kelly Wootton.
The night will conclude with “Virtual Me” by Trent Monahan and Sarah Prothero, which explores identity through the World of Warcraft, and “From the Heart of Brahma” by Robert Douglas, which is about Prumsodun Ok, a man keeping the nearly lost art of Khmer Classical Dance alive.
“Each of the films is relevant to anthropology because anthropology has a wide range of interests with a focus on cultural relevance,” Hardy said. “Hopefully, through experiencing these films and meeting the makers, the audience will gain a better understanding of the diverse world we live in and the multiplicity of views contained therein.”
The free film fest will be held on Thursday and starts at 4 p.m.; it will take place in the USU Beach Auditorium Suite 115 and is also open to the public.