Oklahoma City University’s Film Institute will open its 38th annual international film series at 2 p.m. Sept. 8 with Shireen Seno’s “Nervous Translation,” which has only screened at West Coast festivals in the U.S. thus far. The new screening location for the series is in the Norick Art Center at 1601 N.W. 26th St. Attendance is free to the public.
This year’s series will highlight women filmmakers with a showcase that institute director Tracy Floreani said is much easier to create now than in past years.
“While women filmmakers are still underrepresented at the major international film festivals and still subject to the politics of a male-dominated industry, the percentage of films included in festival circuits and recognized with awards grows each year. This year we offer a women filmmakers showcase to celebrate these advances,” Floreani said.
The list includes two older selections from pioneering women filmmakers and several others by those who are recently gaining recognition for their work. While some of the films take on topics that have been the wheelhouse of women’s film—such as children’s lives, sexual coming-of-age, motherhood and traditional gender roles—most of them simply tell good stories, Floreani said.
The series opening film from the Philippines, “Nervous Translation” follows 8-year-old Yael, a shy girl who prefers writing letters to performing or dancing for her applauding family. She spends time alone listening endlessly to the cassette tapes recorded by her father, who is spending years away from home working in Riyadh. When she hears an advertisement for a pen that will give her a “wonderful life,” Yael decides to spend all her savings on it and let it guide her communications. The film features visual innovation and a critically acclaimed performance from its child protagonist. It will be screened in Filipino with English subtitles.
A discussion about the film will follow the screening for those who wish to stay. For more information, visit the Film Institute website at okcu.edu/film-lit.
Other films in the series will be shown at 2 p.m. on the second Sunday of each month, except on holidays. Other dates and films are:
- Oct. 13, “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night”
- Nov. 13, “The Stories We Tell”
- Dec. 8, “Cléo from 5 to 7”
- Jan. 12, “Capernaum”
- Feb. 9, “Daughters of the Dust”
- March 8, “Mustang”
