Nationally Renowned Film Festival Comes To Central

October 20, 2005

Lene Pedersen (509-963-3211/fax: 509-963-3215/e-mail: pedersenl@cwu.edu)

ELLENSBURG , Wash. - The American Museum of Natural History's Margaret Mead Traveling Film and Video Festival will be hosted by Central Washington University, Oct. 27-29.

The nationally renowned festival of cross-cultural understanding will feature three programs and five films that encompass a broad spectrum of work, from indigenous community media to experimental nonfiction.

"This is the oldest and largest independent documentary film festival in the US," says Dr. Lene Pedersen, CWU professor of visual anthropology and festival coordinator. "The festival is distinguished by its outstanding selection of titles, which tackle diverse and challenging subjects and represent a range of issues and perspectives."

The festival, which is free and open to the public, begins on Thursday, Oct. 27 with "Women and Healing," during which two films will be shown. They are "Afghanistan Unveiled," a 2003 film from Afghanistan, and "Madam Ti Zo," a 2004 film from Haiti.

On Friday, Oct. 28, "Radical Politics" will feature two 2004 films: "A Panther In Africa," from Tanzania, and the American work "A/K/A Mrs. George Gilbert."

On Saturday, Oct. 29, "Transitional Love" is the topic and will featuring the 2003 Cuban film "Marry Me."

"Each program begins at 7 p.m. in Black 151 on the Ellensburg campus. The festival is organized by the CWU department of anthropology and museum in collaboration with the diversity education and student empowerment centers; ethnic studies, Latin American studies and women studies programs; and the art, foreign languages, law and justice, political science, psychology and sociology departments."

For more information, or for persons of disability to arrange for reasonable accommodation, call (509) 963-1687 or (for hearing impaired) TDD (509) 963-2143.

The festival was founded by the American Museum of Natural History in 1977, in recognition of Margaret Mead's pioneering use of film to document culture as a way of informing general audiences about similarities and differences in cultural practices.