It is the belief that one in 10 people in the world is lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, which is the idea behind the One in Ten film festival held by the Coalition of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered and Ally (LGBTA) Graduate Students at Penn State.

LGBTA Graduate Students will present the film festival, featuring works by and about members of the LGBTA community on campus during the last two weekends in March.

"The idea of the festival is to raise awareness and provide a variety of shorts and films that would not normally be seen in central Pennsylvania," Eric Patridge, co-director of the LGBTA graduate students, said.

Pia Deas, chair of the festival, said the goal of One in Ten is to bring awareness to Penn State, as well as provide a venue for filmmakers.

"The purpose of the festival is to foster an appreciation of diversity at Penn State, and to raise political and social awareness about LGBT issues," Deas said. "But it's also to highlight the work of filmmakers in the LGBT community."

Patridge said the festival is imperative to educate Penn State students.

"The films often parallel other well-known ones, but they have their own unique themes and topics," he said. "Without films like the ones we will be showing, there is very little way to educate people about the issues that we deal with."

In its fourth year, the festival will include 14 works that range from 15-minute clips to feature-length films shown around the world.

"We would have tried to bring in something like Brokeback Mountain, but since that went into the theaters, it's unavailable to us," Patridge said. "We still have some great films; we really wanted to show how much diversity there is in the industry."

Deas said she is most excited about the range and diversity of the films being shown and how they allow students to see the experiences found in different cultures and families.

"There are films from all over the world," Deas said. "There is one about dealing with a gay relationship in North Africa, one that investigates an interethnic relationship in Israel, and then one about a spoken word poet and activist traveling across America -- it's awesome because they bring a bit of the world to Penn State."

Along with showing feature-length films, the festival will present a competition of 15-minute-or-less clips that show different aspects of the filmmakers' lives. The audience will chose the winner.

"I've watched some of the shorts, and I'm very excited about them," Deas said. "I love them because the filmmakers are bringing a slice of their lives to the viewer, and you really get a great variety of experiences from across the country."

Deas said all students should come to the festival to either find or show support.

"If students are gay, they should come to the festival because it is positive and affirming," she said. "For the students who are not gay, it is a great way to support the LGBT community, and possibly to get incentive to become an ally to it, as well as see the issues presented in an interesting way."

Melinda Chmielewski (freshman-actuarial science) said she thinks it would be good for students to attend the festival.

"I think it's a really good idea to bring about more tolerance on campus," she said. "And the movies sound really interesting."

Patridge said he expects the festival to bring in a large number of students over the two-weekend run.

"We're really hoping for about 500 to 1,000 students to come to the festival; that would be a really great number," he said.

In addition to everything else, students should come just to see some great films, Deas said.

"It's an exciting festival, well worth the time, and it's free," she said.