Fulbright Film Festival to highlight members’ work, global network

Filmmakers from all over the world will gather in UCLA’s James Bridges Theater this Saturday to showcase their work at the Fulbright Film Festival. The festival aims to bring more attention to the filmmakers involved in the Fulbright Association – a global network of scholars, professionals, business people and students who aim for diplomacy through educational and cultural exchange.

The relationship between cinema and Fulbright’s goal of diplomacy constitutes a major theme and will be explored in depth during one of the filmmaker panel discussions moderated by producer and director Glenn Gebhard. Panelists will include German producer Anke Zwirner, UCLA graduate student and director Meja Shoba and Indian documentary filmmaker Dulam Satyanarayana.

Open to the general public, the event will also feature a series of screenings, filmmaker Q-and-As and an evening reception. All proceeds will fund future Fulbright Association events in Southern California.

Thomas Burns, a lecturer at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and the organizer of the event, said that one of his main goals for the festival is to explore how cinema can connect people of different cultures.

Burns said the relationship between cinema and diplomacy gets at the larger question of art’s contribution to leadership and in building a better world.

Burns said that the idea for organizing the event came to him when he realized how Fulbright filmmakers never get a chance to meet each other and showcase their work all in one place. He decided a festival would be a great opportunity for them to gather in one room and meet each other. A former member of the Fulbright Association Greater Los Angeles chapter’s Board of Directors, Burns proposed the idea to the U.S. Department of State and received a small grant to fund the event.

The festival was open for submissions from any Fulbright program grantees and alumni who played a major role in the creation of a film – whether through producing, directing, editing, playing a lead part or composing the score. A jury of alumni then selected films it believed had the highest quality and audience appeal.

A total of 14 films were chosen from 13 filmmakers from around the world. UCLA graduate student Steven Liang, Shoba and UCLA staff member Steven Foley are among the filmmakers featured in the program.

Although the festival did not specify a theme for submissions, Burns said that Fulbright’s global focus created a common thread among the films showcased.

“(The filmmakers) are very socially conscious and want to give back to the world around them,” Burns said. “These are filmmakers who make films not just for entertainment, but they make films to contribute to the world and to make the world a better place.”

Liang, whose short documentary “A Better Life” will be screened at the festival, said that this international focus contributed to his choice to highlight immigration issues, as his film follows an undocumented restaurant worker in Los Angeles who aspires to become a filmmaker.

“My goal as a filmmaker is to humanize experiences of people who are traditionally underrepresented,” Liang said. “And I think the Fulbright program shows you just that by showing you how to empathize with communities that you don’t necessarily have a direct connection to.”

In tandem with the association’s interest in cultural exchange, the festival will host Q&A; sessions between the filmmakers and audience members to further explore how cinema relates to Fullbright’s goals for diplomacy. The festival will also host a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as a keynote speaker since the Academy has recently pushed for more recognition of international cinema.

Board member of the Fulbright Association Greater Los Angeles chapter and UCLA alumna Christine Thy-Anh Vu took charge of reaching out to film associations, major and local newspapers and Fulbright members on Twitter to highlight the event. She said one of the top five goals of the festival was to highlight the global network of Fulbright members.

“I think that (the event) will definitely bring attention to international film, but also to international collaboration and opportunities,” Thy-Anh Vu said.

As a Fulbright alumna, Thy-Anh Vu said she also wants the event to draw attention to the program that changed her life.

Burns agreed and said that he hopes the festival will bring more attention to the Fulbright Association within the UCLA community.

“I hope that more UCLA students will come to the festival to learn about the Fulbright program and (see) just what is possible,” Burns said.