Every person has a voice. Every voice tells a story. Every story reveals a world. The Global Film Initiative proudly presents an extrordinary series of ten feature films promoting cross-cultural understanding through cinema. Since its launch, the series has provided a platform for exceptional storytelling and opened a window into the diverse world in which we live, and can be seen in more than 35 locations across the United States and Canada. More information and lineup of films HERE

TWICE WEEKLY - SEPTEMBER THRU NOVEMBER

ADMISSION: $6 - MATINEES / $9 - EVENINGS

GLOBAL LENS 2010 FILM SERIES: SEPTEMBER - NOVEMBER

LEO'S ROOM [ Uruguay 2009, 92min, Dir: Enrique Buchichio ]

In the heart of Montevideo, the affable but secretly troubled Leo wraps himself in the comfort of his small rented room, unmotivated to finish his college thesis or find a job, and content with infrequent visits from his girlfriend. After their six-month relationship ends, Leo begins to break out of his shell by cruising the Internet for a new companion, enlisting the aid of a sympathetic therapist along the way. However, it isn’t until he has a chance reunion with a classmate that he is forced to consider the true meaning of his reclusive lifestyle, and a future outside the metaphoric safety of his room. Featuring an affecting soundtrack and an equally endearing cast of characters, director Enrique Buchichio’s affirming drama is a unique vision of isolation and coming-of-age set against a modern tale of romance and friendship. TRAILER & MORE INFO HERE

SCREENING: 7:30p - TUESDAY NOVEMBER 16 - and - 3:30p - SUNDAY NOVEMBER 21

NIGHT OF TRUTH [ Burkina Faso 2004, 100min, Dir: Fanta Régina Nacro ]

Mirroring the political strife and genocide in contemporary Sub-Saharan Africa, this film opens as preparations are being made to end a decade of civil war in a fictitiuous country. A peace agreement is about to be signed and celebrated in a night of reconciliation with a “laying down of arms”. As the powerful drumming begins, both rebels and government forces gather, bringing with them years of rage, grief, hope, suspicion, and bitterness. This award-winning feature debut by one of Africa’s most talented female directors, Fanta Régina Nacro, boldly presents the sometimes unintentional but inhuman behavior inherent in all people. TRAILER & MORE INFO HERE

SCREENING: 7:15p - TUESDAY NOVEMBER 9 - and - 3:00p - SUNDAY NOVEMBER 14

GUEST SPEAKER: INTRODUCTION BY RACHEL GABARA, UGA Associate Professor in Romance Languages

MY TEHRAN FOR SALE [ Iran 2009, 97min, Dir: Granaz Moussavi ]

In this riveting, insider’s perspective on life in Iran’s capital city, Marzieh—a terminally ill actress—wearily relates her desperate quest for political asylum through a series of interviews with an unsympathetic government official. Beginning with details of her doomed relationship with an Iranian-born Australian and their plan to relocate to Adelaide, she recounts her struggle to work as an actress under Iran’s current regime, her hope for a future ultimately dashed by the devastating discovery of her illness, and her need to “escape” the only home she has ever known. Set against the backdrop of Tehran’s thriving arts culture, and framed through a series of artful and dramatic flashback sequences, poet-turned-filmmaker Granaz Moussavi boldly registers the trials of a modern woman struggling to flourish in Iran’s contemporary political climate. TRAILER & MORE INFO HERE

SCREENING: 7:30p - TUESDAY NOVEMBER 2 - and - 3:00p - SUNDAY NOVEMBER 7

GUEST SPEAKER: INTRODUCTION BY ANTJE ASCHEID, UGA Associate Professor in Theater and Film Studies

ADRIFT [ Vietnam 2009, 110min, Dir: Bui Thac Chuyen ]

Soon after her wedding, newlywed Duyen’s excitement begins to fade as she realizes her young husband is not only sexually naïve, but overly occupied by his job and doting mother. As her marriage goes unconsummated and her emotional isolation grows, she reaches out to her closest girlfriend, Cam, who secretly desires her, but pushes her into the arms of a dangerous and provocative suitor. The resulting sexual awakening and infidelity puts Duyen in a precarious love triangle, challenging her notions of conventional relationships and also the stability of her new family. Saturated with erotic tension, director Bui Thac Chuyen’s sensuous and absorbing second feature traces the emotional and psychological landscapes of lust and desire, weaving an atmospheric tale of love and life in modern Hanoi. TRAILER & MORE INFO HERE

SCREENING: 7:15p - TUESDAY OCTOBER 26 - and - 3:15p - SUNDAY OCTOBER 31

GUEST SPEAKER: INTRODUCTION BY HYANGSOON YI

GODS [ Peru 2008, 91min, Dir: Josué Méndez ]

In director Josué Méndez’s stylishly composed second feature, Elisa—the soon-to-be-wife of a wealthy industrialist—is eager to shed her working-class background in favor of the opulence of her fiance’s elite lifestyle. To her dismay, she soon realizes her hopes to slip into magazine-ready images of domestic splendor must also include her future stepchildren: Diego, who is hounded by his overbearing father and reluctantly preparing to enter the family business, and Andrea, Diego’s party-girl sister and the object of both his desire and disgust. As Elisa embraces her new life of lavish parties and beachfront estates, Diego and Andrea rebel against their upper-class upbringing, setting the stage for an ironic contrast of fate and ambition in this biting satire on upper-crust wealth and privilege. TRAILER & MORE INFO HERE

SCREENING: 5:00p - FRIDAY OCTOBER 22 - and - 4:30p - SATURDAY OCTOBER 23

GUEST SPEAKER: INTRODUCTION BY FERNAN CERRON PALOMINO

SHIRLEY ADAMS [ South Africa 2009, 92min, Dir: Oliver Hermanus ]

In this deeply affecting portrait of ordinary courage in present-day South Africa, a single mother—Shirley Adams—struggles to care for her paraplegic teenage son, Donovan, in a depressed district on the outskirts of Cape Town. Wearied but resolute, she desperately clings to him as he withdraws from the world following a suicide attempt, and is hopeful when his spirits are momentarily lifted by the appearance of Tamsin, a pretty but overeager social worker. But when the relationship between Donovan and Tamsin sours, his fragile emotional health declines, and Shirley's faith and perseverance are put to the ultimate test. First-time director Oliver Hermanus's observant camera holds close to its subjects, capturing the claustrophobia, intimacy and hushed anguish surrounding the tender daily routines of a mother and her child. TRAILER & MORE INFO HERE

SCREENING: 7:15p - TUESDAY OCTOBER 19 - and - 3:00p SUNDAY OCTOBER 24

GUEST SPEAKER: INTRODUCTION BY PAM KOHN, Filmmaker and Director of the Robert Osborne Classic Film Festival

BECLOUD [ Mexico 2009, 111min, Dir: Alejandro Gerber Bicecci ]

On a dry lakebed in 1964, a trucker and his companion find a baby boy at the dry breast of its dead mother. Years later the trucker operates an ice factory in a poor urban district with his son, José, who dreams of one day striking out on his own. Neighbor Felipe, meanwhile, works at an Internet café and another neighbor, Andrés, lives with his alcoholic father but spends his free time studying Mexico’s pre-Columbian golden age. All three share a defining incident from their childhood, linking the destinies of their entire neighborhood to the lakebed and baby from years earlier. In this shrewd and well-acted story, director Alejandro Gerber Bicecci turns a tangled neighborhood tale into an enthralling mix of history, memory and atonement, creating an unexpected parable of modern Mexico itself. TRAILER & MORE INFO HERE

SCREENING: 7:15p - TUESDAY OCTOBER 12 - and - 2:30p - SUNDAY OCTOBER 17

GUEST SPEAKER: INTRODUCTION BY FERNANDA GUIDA - UGA PhD Student in Romance Languages

THE SHAFT [ China 2008, 98min, Dir: Zhang Chi ]

In a poor mining town in western China, the stories of a father and his two children intersect and intertwine, illuminating complicated relationships hidden beneath the community’s hardened exterior. Accused of an affair with her manager, the attractive daughter of the household finds herself spurned by her boyfriend and forced to accept an arranged marriage. Her brother dreams of being a singer, but after an unforeseen stint in prison, reluctantly heads into the mines like his father, who spends his days searching for the wife who left him many years ago. Writer-director Zhang Chi’s wise and poetic debut delicately expresses the turmoil of emotion and expectation wrought by a calloused and difficult existence. TRAILER & MORE INFO HERE

SCREENING: 7:15p - TUESDAY OCTOBER 5 - and - 2:30p - SUNDAY OCTOBER 10

GUEST SPEAKER: INTRODUCTION BY MARISSA PAGNATTARO - Associate Professor of Legal Studies

OCEAN OF AN OLD MAN [ India 2008, 84min, Dir: Rajesh Shera ]

In the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and amid the stunning natural beauty of India’s Andaman and Nicobar islands, an elderly British teacher struggles to run a small primary school despite the loss of many of the islands’ children to the recent tragedy. Ignoring the overwhelming grief that washes over the islands, he continues to teach his few remaining students until a government official delivers a relocation order to all residents, causing him to embark on a heartbreaking search for his missing students, convinced they must still be alive. Blending exquisite vistas with the ubiquitous sound of the ocean to convey the precarious balance between human life and the inexorable forces of nature, Rajesh Shera’s debut feature quietly unfolds as a delicate meditation on grief and loss. TRAILER & MORE INFO HERE

SHOWTIMES: 7:15p - THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 30 - and - 3:15p - SUNDAY OCTOBER 3

GUEST SPEAKER: INTRODUCTION BY SANJEEV KUMAR- UGA PhD Student in Geography

ORDINARY PEOPLE [ Serbia 2009, 79min, Dir: Vladimir Perisic ]

On a seemingly average day, a busload of young soldiers is sent to a remote location in the countryside and given a macabre task: the execution of a number of civilians. Dzoni, a green recruit, initially objects, but as he moves from one killing to the next, he is swept up by the spectre of military authority, and quickly becomes desensitized by the apparently routine nature of his task. As he nears the end of his assignment, the quiet horror of the day slowly begins to affect him, forcing a painful reconciliation with his actions. Set in an unspecified time of conflict in the Balkans, director Vladimir Perisic’s highly attuned and unsentimental lens captures the psychological toll of war on its participants, and the universal struggle of all soldiers to reconcile morality with action. MORE INFO HERE

SHOWTIMES: 7:30p- TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 21 - and - 3:00p - SATURDAY 9/25

GUEST SPEAKER: INTRODUCTION BY LAURA MASON - Associate Professor at the UGA History Department

MASQUERADES [ Algeria 2008, 92min, Dir: Lyes Salem ]

After working for much of his life as a gardener in his dusty Algerian village, Mounir dreams of improving his family’s fortune and gaining a measure of respect by marrying off his narcoleptic sister, Rym, to a “real gentleman.” However, Rym has other plans—she dreams of marrying Mounir’s best friend, Khliffa, who has secretly courted her for years. When Mounir lashes out at village gossip with a fib that he has promised Rym to a wealthy outsider, she comes out of her sleepy stupor to embrace the rumor and press her real betrothed into action. Beautifully brought to life by a memorable cast—including director Lyes Salem as the cocky but compassionate bumbler Mounir—this heartfelt comedy suggests that when dreams become reality, it’s time to wake up. MORE INFO HERE

SHOWTIMES: 7:15p - TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 14 - and - 2:45p - SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 19

GUEST SPEAKER: INTRODUCTION BY RADIA BENZEHRA - PhD student in the Linguistics Program at UGA with an MA in linguistics and translation studies from Algeria