Spring Break
Foreign film festival enters its second week at the Avalon
Kelly Krieves
Issue date: 2/5/07 Section: News
Avalon Cinema opened its doors yet again Sunday as the host of the debut Crossroads International Film Festival.
An aroma of popcorn mixed with eclectic vibes of the theatre's unique artwork set the stage as moviegoers settled into their couches and booths in the packed theater.
The non-traditional cinema appropriately matched the non-traditional content shown at the event.
During the festival, the Avalon is showing seven films, each from a different country. The countries include Brazil, India, Italy, Japan, Palestine, Tunisia and the U.S.
For the second weekend in a row, the cinema boasted a full house. The four-week event was created to support the Crossroads International program, which aims to help international students integrate into the community.
Donations and ticket sales from the fundraiser help provide language assistance and hospitality to international students and visiting scholars.
Raffle tickets add to profits made by the Crossroads group. Items such as a diamond pendant and hand-made quilt have been donated to the raffle by businesses in the Corvallis community.
Dawn Moyer, director of Crossroads International, hopes that this year's addition of the Film Festival will bring diversity awareness to students as well as raise funds for the program.
"We hope to get support not only from students who originate from the country in a certain movie, but also domestic OSU students," Moyer said.
Moyer is pleased with the attendance of OSU students so far.
"We made a student price so that students could afford to come," Moyer said. "So they should come out and see what its all about."
Sunday afternoon the event showed the movie "Red Satin," a dramatic Tunisian film.
The movie introduced viewers to Tunisian culture as it told the story of a conservative single mother who learns to live again through dancing at her village's Cabaret hall.
The woman, Lilia, believes that the Cabaret is no place for her adolescent daughter and keeps her passion for dancing a secret. However, Lilia's daughter is not as innocent as she thinks.
The girl has secretly been seeing a man who plays music at the Cabaret hall. Soon the three of them are caught in a love triangle. The film is enriched with pieces of Tunisian culture.
With this festival, Crossroads attempts to bring entertainment together with awareness and, according to David Mills, a business major at OSU, they are succeeding.
"I'm interested in filmmaking," Mills said. "So I heard about this and decided to come. I think it's great that they're showing foreign movies because they bring a lot of new ideas to the table. I felt good about attending this event because I love movies and its all for a good cause."
The festival continues on Feb. 11 with three films, beginning at 2 p.m.
Holly Harris, a Crossroads Representative, attended the festival on Sunday.
"This is one of the most exciting things Crossroads has been involved in," Harris said. "Hopefully, this film festival will continue next year."
An aroma of popcorn mixed with eclectic vibes of the theatre's unique artwork set the stage as moviegoers settled into their couches and booths in the packed theater.
The non-traditional cinema appropriately matched the non-traditional content shown at the event.
During the festival, the Avalon is showing seven films, each from a different country. The countries include Brazil, India, Italy, Japan, Palestine, Tunisia and the U.S.
For the second weekend in a row, the cinema boasted a full house. The four-week event was created to support the Crossroads International program, which aims to help international students integrate into the community.
Donations and ticket sales from the fundraiser help provide language assistance and hospitality to international students and visiting scholars.
Raffle tickets add to profits made by the Crossroads group. Items such as a diamond pendant and hand-made quilt have been donated to the raffle by businesses in the Corvallis community.
Dawn Moyer, director of Crossroads International, hopes that this year's addition of the Film Festival will bring diversity awareness to students as well as raise funds for the program.
"We hope to get support not only from students who originate from the country in a certain movie, but also domestic OSU students," Moyer said.
Moyer is pleased with the attendance of OSU students so far.
"We made a student price so that students could afford to come," Moyer said. "So they should come out and see what its all about."
Sunday afternoon the event showed the movie "Red Satin," a dramatic Tunisian film.
The movie introduced viewers to Tunisian culture as it told the story of a conservative single mother who learns to live again through dancing at her village's Cabaret hall.
The woman, Lilia, believes that the Cabaret is no place for her adolescent daughter and keeps her passion for dancing a secret. However, Lilia's daughter is not as innocent as she thinks.
The girl has secretly been seeing a man who plays music at the Cabaret hall. Soon the three of them are caught in a love triangle. The film is enriched with pieces of Tunisian culture.
With this festival, Crossroads attempts to bring entertainment together with awareness and, according to David Mills, a business major at OSU, they are succeeding.
"I'm interested in filmmaking," Mills said. "So I heard about this and decided to come. I think it's great that they're showing foreign movies because they bring a lot of new ideas to the table. I felt good about attending this event because I love movies and its all for a good cause."
The festival continues on Feb. 11 with three films, beginning at 2 p.m.
Holly Harris, a Crossroads Representative, attended the festival on Sunday.
"This is one of the most exciting things Crossroads has been involved in," Harris said. "Hopefully, this film festival will continue next year."
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