If the glitz and glamour of Sunday night’s Oscars reminded us of anything, it’s that film is a powerful medium that crosses all lines of class, race, cultural and socioeconomics. It even crosses borders, making the world within reaching distance at all times.
Film is immediate, sensory and can stay with us long after the visions have faded from our field of sight. The images themselves know no single language, only the mother tongue of the heart.
It’s special and quite amazing that for a second year in a row we have been chosen as a site for Film Forward, an initiative by the Sundance Institute and the President’s Council on the Arts and Humanities.
A collection of eight films will be shown today through Friday in various locations in the Imperial and Mexicali valleys. Among them, “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” which was nominated for four Academy Awards including best actress for 9-year-old Quvenzhane Wallis.
Several of the filmmakers involved in the program will be in attendance at their showings and speak with the public during Q&A sessions.
Lest one thinks this is a snooty affair, we love the fact that skateboarding legend Stacy Peralta’s “Bones Brigade: An Autobiography” will be among the movies screened, with Peralta on hand to answer questions at the Brawley Skatepark tonight and at Cheap Tricks Skate Shop on Wednesday night.
Also, director Jerry Rothwell, whose film “Town of Runners” chronicles four young Ethiopians running for their national teams, will speak at Imperial and Calexico high schools.
In addition to visiting Mexicali, both men will also speak at the Slabs.
We have the full schedule available online at http://www.sundance.org/filmforward/destination/california-mexico-2013/
Frankly, we’re lucky this has returned to the Imperial Valley. Attendance last year was not good, which we found absurd because these are critically renowned films being made free to the public in unique and invigorating settings.
We’re under no delusion that the reason we are allowed to partake is Mexicali. Part of the idea of Film Forward is to promote cross-cultural discussion, with film being the conduit or centerpieces of that discussion. That this would occur simultaneously on both sides of the border is an essential piece to it. The other sites of Film Forward this year are Bosnia and Herzegovina, China and Taiwan, Colombia, Jordan, Puerto Rico, Maine and Washington state.
As a valley in need of cultural nourishment, Film Forward is the plate of food put before us. We encourage all to go out and eat up.
THE ISSUE:
Film Forward plays today through Friday
WE SAY:
We are fortunate to have this in the Valley; we must take advantage.
WHAT DO YOU SAY?
Send us your thoughts on this topic to www.ivpressonline.com/letterstotheeditor
To comment on this story click here to be directed to Facebook.
