Stuyvesant Holds Second International Film Festival

Stuyvesant held its second annual International Film Festival from January 8 to January 17. Hosted by the Language Department in the Murray Kahn Theater, this year’s festival showcased six foreign films, all recently screened, many of which targeted major social and political issues ranging from the Holocaust to transgender youth.

The movies —“Thermae Romae” (2012), “Carol’s Journey” (2002), “Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress” (2002), “Emil and the Detectives” (2001), “Life is Beautiful” (1997), and “My Life in Pink” (1997)—were shown in their original language, but subtitles were provided to assist students not fluent in that particular language.

Japanese teacher Chie Helinski, Spanish teacher Anna Montserrat, Chinese teacher Julie Zhu, French and German teacher Rebecca Lindemulder, Italian and Spanish teacher Pasqua Rocchio, and French teacher Manuel Ramirez made up the committee that curated the screening.

The first film, “Thermae Romae,” is a Japanese comedy about an Ancient Roman architect, Lucius, who time-travels to modern-day Japan before returning to Rome with innovative techniques for building public baths. Originally a Japanese manga and eventually an anime and film, “Thermae Romae” was a light-hearted start to the film festival.

“Carol’s Journey” was shown on January 9 and illustrated the difference between the liberal views in America and the conservative views in Spain. Carol, an American from Spain, visited her hometown with her mother during the Spanish Civil War. The movie documented the tragedies of the Spanish Civil War which are still remembered today by many in Spain.

The next day, “Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress” dramatized a socio-political struggle in a different light, depicting both the Cultural Revolution and a romance in the relationship between the illiterate Little Seamstress and the two boys Luo and Ma, bonding over banned Western novels.

“I was extremely intrigued by [the movie] because it was able to successfully fuse a romance with the plight of many who suffered during the Cultural Revolution, and yet it was still comedic in some parts,” sophomore Frank Yang said. “I think that the directors and filmmakers wanted you to feel that amidst this crisis, there’s still a speck of happiness that shines through.”

“Emil and the Detectives” was the selection of Ms. Lindemulder, based on a 1929 children’s book following a young boy initially tasked with sending money to his grandmother. His money gets stolen, sending him and the local children in Berlin on a mission to retrieve it.

This movie was especially well received by students taking German at Stuyvesant. "As someone learning German, I thought it was pretty cool that I could pick up on a lot of the dialogue. Hearing from native speakers is really different from speaking exercises in class, so I'm glad I got this new experience with the language,” sophomore Ahmed Sultan said.

A week after, the film festival resumed on Tuesday with the Italian film “Life is Beautiful,” depicting a family ravaged by the Holocaust in Italy. Guido, the father, convinces his son that the concentration camps are a game, wherein players gain 1,000 points to escape the camp. Points would be gained by accomplishing tasks, and lost in crying, either for his mother or out of hunger.

Sophomore Alison Juray, who went to see the movie due to its many accolades, was touched by the film and found it worthwhile to watch. “My parents are Jewish, and I’m Jewish, so I knew the horrors of the war, but I still wanted him [Guido] to stay alive so they would have the perfect family,” Juray said. Taking note of the subtitles, Juray also added that the language barrier in watching the film meant that she more deeply understood the film and found it easier to connect with.

To wrap up the festival, the French film “Life in Pink” spoke to LGBT movements in the modern day by detailing the life of Ludovic and his family. Ludovic, who is transgender, gets labelled as a “joker.” He repeatedly faces conflicts in his family when they force him to identify as a boy.

Mr. Ramirez chose this film because it conveyed an extremely important message, while remaining appropriate for a younger audience. “Right now, there is lots of debate, laws being passed for and against transgender people, like using certain bathrooms, being allowed in the army, things of that nature, so I thought this film would be very appropriate,” Ramirez said.

Ramirez also described how in his AP French class, this film’s showing coincided with a chapter taught in class discussing aesthetics and beauty. He noted, “I had my students think of other groups, any other group that can’t change parts about them, and had them think of [...] what advice would you give to a child who doesn’t like the color of their skin, or their birth gender, or how tall or short they are”

Assistant Principal of World Languages Dr. Ernest Oliveri was pleased with the turnout at the festival and hopes to expand the reach of it in subsequent years. “The objective [of the festival] is to bring more and more kids to the auditorium, exposing them to different cultures, and I think next year we will increase that number considerably, since we are going to be partnering with the Social Studies Department next year. The committee [for picking films] will be bigger, but it will benefit from more input,” Dr. Oliveri said. “We will still insist on these languages being the ones in which the films are seen, since that’s where our expertise comes in.”