The debut of the series this year is Arlington Road, starring Tim Robbins, which revolves around Robbins' character, a college professor who begins to suspect his neighbor of being a terrorist.
"We have things of contemporary interest, such as the Iraq war, and also issues that have been very big in the past, like poverty," retired Penn State physics professor Peter Shaw said.
Shaw has helped organize the series since 2002. He said that while it's a coincidence that the series' debut has fallen just a few days after Martin Luther King Jr. Day, many of King's messages can be directly found in the film's messages.
"Everything that we show and bring up in the videos [MLK] would be involved in his own way ... because he was not with just with the [civil rights] movement in the '60s but also many more broad issues involving human rights," Shaw added.
Scott Morris (graduate-literacy and education) has helped organize the series since its inception and said volunteers are essential to the series' success.
"There's a volunteering of time, and sometimes volunteering of resources too, like reaching into one's wallet occasionally," Morris said.
He added that the largest crowd to attend the showings was about 200 people in the municipal building.
"It caused some controversy because [the municipal officials] said that there were too many people for room," he said. "We had to negotiate to continue use of the building ... eventually we negotiated a reasonable settlement, but we can only have 90 chairs set up now."
Although their official seat limit is now restricted, Morris did add that people can stand, or choose to bring their own chairs however. Though the nine films shown are sometimes very different, Morris says they all have a strong message which in the end tries to keep the viewer with a positive look at the situation.
"[We attempt] two main things -- we try to balance the films we show between films that take a critical look at problems in world, and that also show people looking at overcoming those same problems. If you just keep grinding people down with problems ... it all just looks hopeless," Morris said.
Student interest here at Penn State seems to be fairly high on pertinent issues such as these -- one of the main reasons being that other views on controversial topics give students more knowledge about certain issues.
"It's easy to be sheltered from the outside world, so it's good to have someone else's look on the topic and gain another perspective," Dana Giusti (junior-English) said.
Although the series is free, a donation box is usually put out at the showings of the films in order to cover the cost of building rentals, among other things.
Volunteers are always willing to lend a hand with the series.
"After we showed a few films there were other people interested in helping," Morris said.
"People contribute in different capacities, with different commitments," Morris added.
Shaw says that many people may wonder whether or not it's really worth checking out some of the topics surrounding these rights issues.
"I think we have an alternative view ... [the viewpoints here] aren't presented in most media. That's really our function, to offer people an opportunity to see another view of what's going on in the world today. If they want to disagree, they can always stick around and discuss afterwards."
This is the series' 10th semester, and admission is free.
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