Under the baobab: Centre Film Festival enhances the cultural vitality in our community
The 5th Annual Centre Film Festival (CFF) opens Monday night at The State Theatre and runs through Sunday, Nov. 5. Founded by artistic director and Penn State associate professor Pearl Gluck, and the late professor Curt Chandler, CFF has become the premiere international film festival in central Pennsylvania. The CFF has grown from presenting 18 films four years ago to screening more than 100 films this year.
The films, selected from more than 600 international submissions, will be screened in five venues — The State Theatre, the Rowland in Philipsburg, Tempest Studios, Carnegie Cinema and Foster Auditorium. In addition to showing feature films and documentaries, there will be high school and college student films, a first act screenwriting lab and post-screening discussions with many filmmakers. Tickets are modestly priced and free for students.
Monday night’s opening showcases two made-in-Pennsylvania films. “Dirt Circus” by John Affleck captures the passion, danger and excitement of dirt track racing, and “Marinette” by Virginie Verrier highlights the life of French footballer Marinette Pichon. Affleck, Verrier and Pichon will be in attendance.
Closing night films on Nov. 5 are “Vertebrae” by Travis Shilling and “Hey Viktor” featuring Gary Farmer. Farmer is from the Cayuga Nation and a member of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. He has been very influential in the development of Indigenous film and music. He appeared in “Smoke Signals,” the first feature film that was written, directed, produced by and starring Native Americans. CFF will honor Farmer with the Chandler Living Legend Award.
Pennsylvania native and PSU Distinguished Alum, Gerald W. Abrams, will also be honored with the CFF Lifetime Achievement Award for his pioneering work in television and film. Twice nominated for Emmy Awards, Abrams was the 2023 commencement speaker for the Bellisario College of Communications.
This year’s films are particularly relevant to critical global events depicting life as lived in Ukraine, Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Lebanon, Iran, Turkey and more. Filmmakers focus on Indigenous, Christian, Muslim and Jewish cultures and traditions, homelessness, refugees and displacement, LGBTQ+ life, sports, comedy, the Black Hebrews, war photography, and ordinary life.
The CFF, like its predecessors, Arts Fest, People’s Choice Arts Festival, African American Music Festival and the Central Pennsylvania Theatre and Dance Festival, enhances the cultural vitality in our community. Though it is edifying to travel around the world to witness how life is lived elsewhere, it is even more enlightening when artists bring us those lives to share right here in Happy Valley.
Other happenings
Iranian lawyer and activist Nasrin Sotoudeh was awarded the Brown Democracy Medal by The McCourtney Institute for Democracy at the Foster Auditorium. PSU alums Larry and Lynne Brown established the Democracy medal in 2014. Larry Brown, chair of the McCourtney Institute, shared remarks as he presented the award to filmmakers Jeff Kaufman and Marcia S. Ross, who accepted it on behalf of Sotoudeh. She is under house arrest for defending those protesting the imposed mandatory hijab. Earlier they screened and discussed their feature length documentary, “Nasrin” for a couple of hundred attendees at The State Theatre. Nasrin is known as “Iran’s Nelson Mandela.” She has defended other human rights activists, including Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi and Heshmat Tabarzadi. Because of her commitment to human rights, Sotoudeh has been repeatedly imprisoned by the Iranian government for “crimes against the state.” She protests capital punishment as well as the criminalization of women who oppose the mandatory wearing of the hijab.
It’s a time of transition for the world’s oldest democracy. The leaves are falling down. Campaign signs are up. Political ads blare on TV. Hosted by the League of Women Voters, C-NET broadcasts candidate debates for those campaigning for local office and school board.
Election day is Tuesday, Nov. 7. Vote as if democracy depends on it. It does.
Charles Dumas is a lifetime political activist, a professor emeritus from Penn State, and was the Democratic Party’s nominee for U.S. Congress in 2012. He lives with his partner and wife of 50 years in State College.
