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Ohio Wesleyan to Host Free Hispanic Film Festival

Five Movie Screenings, Discussions to be Held Sept. 21 Through Oct. 26

DELAWARE, Ohio – Ohio Wesleyan University will kick off a Hispanic Film Festival this month to showcase five movies from Spain and Latin America. 

Each free screening will include a discussion led by Ohio Wesleyan students and faculty. The Hispanic Film Festival will launch Sept. 21 and continue through Oct. 26. 

The five films selected for this year’s festival were chosen by the Spanish faculty of OWU’s Modern Foreign Languages Department. 

“The films we chose represent a variety of countries because we want to expose our students, and film festival guests, to different cultures and dialects within the Spanish-speaking world,” said Andrea Colvin, Ph.D., associate professor of Spanish. “Some align particularly well with a course that is being offered this fall.” 

Films to be shown as part of OWU’s 2017 Hispanic Film Festival are as follows. Please note the films may contain mature themes and language. Unless otherwise noted, all screenings will be held in the Bishop Café in Hamilton-Williams Campus Center, 40 Rowland Ave., Delaware.

• 6:30 p.m. Sept. 21 – “Ixcanul” (“Volcano”) (Guatemala, 2015). This film will be screened in Phillips Auditorium, 50 S. Henry St., Delaware. On the slopes of an active volcano in Guatemala, a marriage is arranged for 17-year-old María by her Kaqchikel parents.
• 6:30 p.m. Sept. 28 – “Pelo Malo” (“Bad Hair”) (Venezuela, 2013). A 9-year-old boy’s obsession with straightening his hair creates homophobic panic in his hard-working mother.
• 6:30 p.m. Oct. 4 – “Neruda” (Chile, 2016). An inspector hunts down Nobel Prize-winning Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, who becomes a fugitive in his home country in the late 1940s for joining the Communist Party.
• 6:30 p.m. Oct. 17 – “Aquí y allá” (“Here and There”) (Mexico, 2012). This film will be screened in Room 301 of Merrick Hall, 65 S. Sandusky St., Delaware. A man returns home to Mexico after many years in the United States, hoping to make a better life with his family and pursue his dreams of starting a band.
• 6:30 p.m. Oct. 26 – “Bajarí: Gypsy Barcelona” (Barcelona, 2013). Flamenco is one of the world’s few art forms believed to be passed down exclusively through bloodlines. “Bajarí: Gypsy Barcelona” offers an intimate look at how flamenco’s legacy is kept alive within Barcelona’s tight-knit Gypsy community. 

The Hispanic Film Festival is made possible through the support of Pragda, SPAIN arts & culture, and the Secretary of State for Culture in Spain in collaboration with Ohio Wesleyan’s Department of Modern Foreign Languages, Global Studies Institute, Latin American Studies Program, Film Studies Program, and VIVA Latinx student organization.

Founded in 1842, Ohio Wesleyan University is one of the nation’s premier liberal arts universities. Located in Delaware, Ohio, the private university offers nearly 90 undergraduate majors and competes in 23 NCAA Division III varsity sports. Through Ohio Wesleyan’s signature OWU Connection program, students integrate knowledge across disciplines, build a diverse and global perspective, and apply their knowledge in real-world settings. Ohio Wesleyan is featured in the book “Colleges That Change Lives,” listed on the latest President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction, and included in the U.S. News & World Report and Princeton Review “best colleges” lists. Learn more at www.owu.edu.