Introduction
Being students in the class of intercultural communication, we had the opportunity to attend for an international film festival in Chicago. The Chicago International Film Festival is regarded as the oldest film festival in North America. It is organized by Cinema/Chicago and features films from all over the world. This festival is organized in Chicago every year since its inception in 1965 by Michael Kutza. As a matter of fact, the festival’s website points out that it has had a consistent objective that still remains to this moment, “… to discover and present new filmmakers to Chicago, and to acknowledge and award these filmmakers for their artistry” (par. 1).
This year’s event was one of the greatest. It pointed out the competitive nature of the event. Many films that had been slotted for the different categories clearly evidenced the established thesis of the festival which has always been the discovery, presentation and rewarding of creativity. The event provided a wide range of artistry that could be compared to non-other. All forms of films were represented in the various categories. Among the categories were feature films, categories for first time directors and their second time counterparts, documentaries, short films, student films, animations et cetera.
Question & answer session
Apart from watching the movies, spectators had the opportunity to come face to face with film directors and actors. During this session, the directors offered screening of their movies before holding a session for questions and answers. This was a chance for filmgoers to get the answers to the questions that they could have otherwise had no opportunity to ask. Accordingly, I had the opportunity to chat with several revered film directors. I had the opportunity to see the personality of the all-time great horror Dracula’s director, Christopher Lee, Four Little Girls’ director, Spike Lee and Catherine Breillat of the movie Fat Girl. I had a one on one chat with them and thus got to know what had been the inspiration that made them come up with such great movies.
Black perspective
Another exciting aspect of the festival was the section dubbed Black Perspectives. This gave opportunity to directors and actors who had afrocentric views to showcase their extraordinary talents. We had the opportunity of feasting on extremely diverse and rich films that portrayed a high sense of creativity and brilliance. This program also offered opportunity to directors and actors to bring out a clear picture of the black experience and hence make substantial contributions by broadening the world’s perception of the black people. It was from this program that the exemplary actions from Halle Berry, Morgan Freeman, Laurence Fishburne and many other directors and actors who had positively contributed to the black experience had been exposed.
Opium: diary of a madwoman
One of the movies that were featured in this festival was Opium: Diary of a Madwoman. This movie that draws its inspiration from Hungary’s Geza Cath, a neurologist brings out the issue of ethics in the contemporary society. It points out how a professional can go against his work ethics with a selfish intention of acquiring his personal interests. In the movie, Dr. Josef Brenner (Ulrich Thomsen) is addicted to Morphine. He believes that a small dose of morphine was enough to steer his creative string. As a result, he heads to a small remote asylum which hosts mentally disturbed women where he intends to acquire his desperately needed drug under pretext that it was meant for a psychoanalytic study. His plans face a hurdle when the director of the clinic identifies some non traditional approaches by this doctor. During this period, Dr. Brenner strikes a friendship cord with one of the asylum dwellers (Kristi Stubo). On her part, Kristi believes that the devil had claimed her soul. This makes Brenner make a lot of effort to rescue this lady from her pains. However, he does not use ethical means to achieve this goal. In addition, the intention of Dr. Brenner is not just to salvage the mentally disturbed Kristi but also to advance his own selfish desires. Yet, this method becomes effective to everyone’s surprise.
Positive implications
This event had a positive implication on me. I now appreciate all movies without their point of origin or without being referred to by a friend. Prior to this, I only watched a movie because it was from the United States but now, I watch movies from all over the world. I learnt to appreciate the cultures of other regions of the world. Specifically, I was really impressed by the Black Perspective program which opened my eyes concerning the black experience. To sum up everything, I learnt to appreciate other cultures and enjoy their creativity.
Negative reaction
The festival was completely educative. However, the only negative aspect that I realized was that most of these movies were from Europe and America. Asia was also partially represented but Africa had the least representation. To clearly portray the afrocentric perspective, more movies from Africa should be featured. This would help people like me to understand the African culture and appreciate their artistry. In addition, it will give Africans an opportunity to rank themselves with other developed continents. This does not major purely on Africa but also some parts of Asia and South America. If all these are equitably incorporated, Chicago International Film Festival will be a collection and celebration of the world’s culture.
Reference List
Chicago International Film Festival. (2009). 45th Anniversary of the Chicago International Film Festival. Web.