Western Oregon Journal

Issue date: 11/9/07 Section: Headlines

Shaun Huston displayes the Tournées Festival posterShaun Huston displayes the Tournées Festival poster [Click to enlarge]

Education and entertainment collide in Western's third annual Tournées Festival, a series of five French film showings supported by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, the French Ministry of Culture and sponsored locally by the film studies program.

Shaun Huston, associate professor of the departments of geography and film studies, and organizer of the Tournées Fesitval hopes to use this year's program to widen students' perceptions of film.

"A lot of Western students come from small towns in Oregon and may not have the chance to see a lot of movies, especially those not made in Hollywood, and not made in English," Huston said. "The festival is about starting a conversation with students about different kinds of art."

This year's festival began on Oct. 30, with "Backstage," a film that explores the relationship between pop stars and fans by depicting the extremes of each situation in a blend that causes audience members to sit back and contemplate the movie.

Last Tuesday, the festival featured "Chats Perchés," or "The Case of the Grinning Cat," a movie about post-9/11 politics in France focusing on the intersection of arts, culture, and politics. The remaining three films in the festival sequence include "Indigenes," Nov. 13, "La Plafond de Verre," translated "The Glass Ceilng" Nov. 20, and "Fauteuil D'Orchestre," or "Avenau Montaigne" Nov. 27. All films will show on Tuesday nights at 7 p.m. in ITC 211.

Twenty-one people attended "Backstage," eighteen of which were students, while the remaining three were faculty members. "A lot [of attendees] looked like French students and were probably there for the language experience," said Huston.

"Attendance swings up and down. The last film is usually the biggest turnout, so we try to program it to being something more mainstream. We want to send everyone away with a good experience," said Huston.

The Tournées Festival began at Western three years ago when another geographer introduced Huston to the opportunity to get a $1,800 grant from the French American Cultural Exchange (FACE) Council. Although this festival occurs at institutions across the United States, each school picks its own arrangement of films from a list produced by the FACE Council, usually composed of films released in the last one to two years. The biggest cost involved is paying the screening fees, which can be $250 to $500 per film.

For the last three years, Western's festival has occurred during Fall Quarter in conjunction with Canada Week and with International Education Week. In the past, Western has incorporated films made in Quebec, as well as African movies into its program.

The FACE Council will fund the Tournées program at an individual institution for up to five years. Huston said that student organizations will be almost essential after that period to keep the program going.

"In all likelihood, we'll get grants for two more years," Huston said. "If this festival is to continue past that [time], we'll have to find other ways to fund it and make it work. It will be important to get student groups on campus involved to get funding we don't have available now."•

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