The 14th Annual Global Issues Film Festival will take place from November 17-22 at Mott Community College. All films are free and open to the public.The festival is sponsored by Kettering University, University of Michigan-Flint and Mott Community College.
Use #KetteringGIFF to share your thoughts and insights on the films on social media.
Below is information on the films in the festival with corresponding showtimes.
Tuesday, November 17, 5:30 p.m. *KIVA, Harding Mott University Center, University of Michigan-Flint
INDIA’S DAUGHTER (2015) Directed by Leslee Udwin. 63 min.
Jyoti Singh, or Nirbhaya (Fearless) as she would be known, was a medical student from a working class family in Delhi, India. India’s Daughter tells the story of Jyoti’s brutal gang rape and murder in 2012 as she rode a bus home with a friend after watching a film. Because she was outside her home at night without her family present, she was deemed eligible for sexual violence. Students of Jawaharlal Nehru University launched massive protests, sparking a national debate about rape culture and the place of girls and women in Indian society, with protests spreading throughout the country. The film is currently banned in India and has incited much debate among South Asian feminists.
Friday, November 20, 7 p.m., Regional Technology Center Auditorium, Mott Community College
PLASTIC PARADISE (2013) Directed by Angela Sun. 57 min.
Every single piece of plastic that has ever been created since the 19th century is still somewhere on our planet. So if it never goes away, where does it go? In the center of the vast Pacific Ocean, Midway Atoll is one of the most remote places on earth. And yet it has become ground zero for The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, collecting plastics from three distant continents. In this film, which has won over ten international awards, journalist Angela Sun travels on a personal journey of discovery to uncover this mysterious phenomenon. PLASTIC PARADISE demonstrates how our everyday interactions with plastic connects to pollution at the farthest corners of our world.
Following the screening, there will be a discussion with Amy Freeman, Composting Specialist of Iris Waste Diversion Specialists, Inc.
Saturday, November 21, 1 p.m., Regional Technology Center Auditorium, Mott Community College
INDIA’S DAUGHTER (2015) Directed by Leslee Udwin. 63 min.
Saturday, November 21, 2:30 p.m., Regional Technology Center Auditorium, Mott Community College
NADA’S REVOLUTION (2014) Directed by Claudia Lisboa. 60 min.
“Without the revolution, I would not be the person I am today.” Nada Ahmed went to Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt in 2011, and took part in the massive protests that led to the overthrow of the dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak. After the Arab Spring, she was able to fulfill her own dream, to manage a children’s theater and to teach the next generation about the meaning of the revolution. NADA’S REVOLUTION explores the struggles of a woman who seeks a career first, and marriage second--a personal revolution in a country caught between tradition and modernity.
Sunday, November 22, 1 p.m., Regional Technology Center Auditorium, Mott Community College
PILGRIMS AND TOURISTS (2013) Directed by Christopher McLeod. 60 min.
In the Russian Republic of Altai, traditional native people create their own mountain parks, to rein in tourism and resist a gas pipeline that would cut through a World Heritage Site. Meanwhile, in northern California, Winnemem Wintu girls grind herbs on a sacred medicine rock, as elders protest U.S. government plans to enlarge one of the American West’s biggest dams and forever submerge the sacred land of this tribe. Director Toby McLeod has woven stories of first nations peoples’ resilience amidst images of searing beauty and unimagined destruction, providing insights on a growing global indigenous movement for human rights and environmental protection.
The second half of the film festival will be at Kettering University, Jan. 27-30, 2016.