College can have different meanings for many students.
This weekend, it means the theme of this year’s Institute for the Arts and Humanities Film Festival, showing at The State Theatre.
“College: A Film Festival” will be showcasing different experiences across the collegiate-themed film spectrum and what it really means to viewers.
Hester Blum, associate professor of English and interim associate director of the Institute for the Arts and Humanities, said that the theme will show different sides of what it means to be a college community, and how it’s “both intellectually rigorous but also playful.”
Blum said that the films were chosen by the IAH staff as well as Assistant Professor of English and Jewish Studies Benjamin Schreier, who she said is teaching a class that goes along with the Festival.
Blum said some of the films are popular enough to attract audiences to the theater, but there are some that may come as a surprise.
A few films off the weekend’s list include: “Old School,” “Good Will Hunting,” “Rope,” and “The Graduate.”
Laura March, who works with the directors of the IAH, said that members of the IAH were looking into different representations of college.
“We were thinking of movies that really show what college means,” March (graduate-art education) said.
IAH Graphic Designer Kristin Barry said that with the events of this past year, the IAH “really wanted to show college life from a number of different perspectives.”
Blum and Barry said that originally, the IAH had a different theme in mind, but changed it to “college.”
“The theme helps us think more about the meaning of college in America,” March said. “It’s up to the viewer of the film, what college means to us and what it meant to the filmmakers.”
Barry (graduate- art history) said they chose this theme hoping to catch the eye of undergraduates.
“It’s part of our new kind of extended mission to engage all students, faculty and staff,” Barry said.
Students don’t have to worry about paying for a ticket –– the show is free, and Barry said that there will be free shirts for the first several students to arrive.
Barry said students are now past the beginning of the semester and are diving into their work, adding that hopefully the festival can “take a little stress off.”
The festival reels start to turn at noon on Saturday with “Breaking Away,” and continues until Saturday’s portion of the festival ends with “Animal House,” which will show at 11:30 p.m.
It begins again on Sunday with “Mona Lisa Smile” at noon, and the last show of the festival, “Old School,” at midnight, which Blum said she’s excited to introduce.
Blum said she is a big fan of “Old School.”
“My secret dream is to be a Professor of Will Ferrell Studies.”
Barry said she is also excited for “Old School.”
“College is forever, I just love that,” Barry said. “Doesn’t matter what your age is. The college experience is forever.”
To email reporter: mob5349@psu.edu
