Charles Randow (graduate-engineering science and mechanics), who is also on the committee, said these films have multiple benefits.

"A lot of graduate students are not American citizens," he said. "I think [the CAFÉ series] is a great opportunity to see films from their own countries. I find that interesting from an educational perspective."

Amirshahi agreed that foreign films can have a strong educational purpose.

"They document the realities of life in other cultures and other countries," Amirshahi said.

Jue Gu (sophomore-aerospace engineering) who frequents the CAFÉ series on a semi-weekly basis, said the foreign films shown have a somewhat logical aesthetic attraction.

"The foreign films that make it over here are the really good ones," Gu said. "Sometimes, I'll watch one and then afterwards run down to see the other one."

Amirshahi said he thinks having the two films to choose from (typically one foreign, one American arthouse) is an essential aspect of the CAFÉ series. But for two years in a row the University Park Allocations Committee has cut the GSA CAFÉ budget in half, suggesting only one film be shown every week instead of two.

Because of these cuts, there was a brief period of a few weeks last year when only one film was shown per week on campus, but Amirshahi assured that for the rest of the spring semester there will most likely be the two options.

In addition to catering to students' artistic and educational needs, the films in the CAFÉ series are also of great social and political interest.

"Movies, like other arts, can impact society in any aspect if they are political enough," Amirshahi said. "We try to choose movies that relate to socio-political issues, because these movies can make people think, make them see what's going on."

The venue for the film series is 102 and 112 Chambers and admission is free. The films are typically DVDs broadcast from a projector.