WSU Vancouver Hosts Student Film Screening

VANCOUVER, Wash. — Washington State University Vancouver’s Center for Social and Environmental Justice will host an April 25 screening of eight short student films from 5:30-8:30 p.m. in the Multimedia Classroom Building, Room 22.

The event is free and open to the public.

The film subjects include the war in Iraq, media representations of war, media and consumerism, the politics of the Bush administration, the construction of identity, and a portrait of a prisoner, sentenced to life behind bars, who volunteers for a prison hospice program.

The films were produced by students in Pavithra Narayanan’s film and production course. The coursework required students to create a short film after spending hours viewing, discussing, critiquing and thinking about Asian American films.

“The basis of choosing to look at Asian-American films is not only to narrow the lens but to also look at a minority group that has largely remained visible only through work and almost invisible as people. Through popular culture we explore and understand the role of media in influencing ideas of race and identity in the United States,” Narayanan said.

In addition to a background in British and Indian literature and in women’s studies, Narayanan holds a master’s degree in mass communication. She has for the last several years focused considerable energy in producing documentaries that engage critical issues in contemporary Indian culture, including a film entitled “India and Free Trade: A Closer Look at Bhopal,” which focuses on the Bhopal Union Carbide disaster. She is currently working on a film about female infanticide in India and another on resistance to the military occupation of Northeast India.

The screening is sponsored by the WSU Vancouver Center for Social and Environmental Justice, which acts to fulfill WSU’s land grant mission by engaging community capacities to address poverty, inequality, discrimination and unequally born environmental dangers. The center supports interdisciplinary approaches to positive cultural, political, social and environmental change.

WSU Vancouver is located at 14204 N.E. Salmon Creek Ave., east of the 134^th Street exit from either I-5 or I-205. Parking rules are enforced Monday through Friday 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Parking is available in the blue lot for $1.75 or at parking meters.