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Film festival will bring Middle East closer to home

October 15, 2009 11:44 AM BRANDON FIBBS THE GAZETTE Even from our high perch at the Front Range of the Rockies, our views can be limited, particularly when we try to see and understand other cultures. The new Intersections Film Festival at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs hopes to extend our cultural vision. The festival is the brainchild of Carole Woodall, the IFF executive curator and an assistant professor in the department of history and the Program of Women’s and Ethnic Studies at UCCS. The festival will examine a diverse range of issues, including honor killings, drug addiction, sexual abuse and the struggle to create a normal life in a conflict zone. It’s intended as a way to engage our community in an intimate examination of women’s lives and experiences in contemporary Middle East and North Africa. It is not enough to look at these women’s lives in their own contexts alone, says Woodall, who spent nearly a quarter of her life in Turkey, but it is, in fact, imperative that we ask ourselves how their lives intersect with our own. “We want to destabilize the stereotypes of the Middle East through film,” Woodall says. “We want to establish a dialogue within the community, to create a framework in which real communication about these issues can take place.” Robert von Dasanowsky is the director of UCCS’ Film Studies program and the IFF program director “This festival is so important because of our country’s relationship or lack thereof with the Middle East and specifically because of how our city is so affected by what is going on over there,” he says. “The Middle East is so much more than just a war zone. And this is not just a film festival — it is an exercise in cultural education.” Woodall, who sees the Intersections Film Festival becoming a regular event on the Colorado Springs social calendar, knows Colorado Springs is an unusual place to host such a festival but insists that it is for that very reason that it is imperative. “There is nothing like this in the Western states. These sorts of festivals and questions take place on the coasts, but never out here. People here want to build bridges and create multi-diversity. I have met nothing but interest.” The festival will screen more than half a dozen films, from popular fare like the Academy Award-nominated “Persepolis” to others rarely seen in the United States. Several of the filmmakers are traveling to Colorado Springs to join local academics for lectures and Q&A sessions. “I love the provocativeness of the films we’ve incorporated,” says Woodall. “This festival is not just establishing a new dialogue on the Front Range, it is also altering how Colorado Springs is represented both in the U.S. and in the Middle East.” Intersections Film Festival When: Today through Sunday Where: Screening locations will alternate between the UCCS campus and the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center Admission: Free For details and showtimes: www.uccs.edu/~iff