VICTIM OF TWO CULTURES
September 27
10AM-NOON Multicultural Center, Woodbury Campus Center, Portland Campus
3pm-5pm Husky Hut, Brooks Student Center, Gorham Campus
Richard Rodriguez, the son of Mexican immigrants, calls himself "a comic victim of two cultures." He started out speaking nothing but Spanish, and now argues for education in nothing but English. A Fulbright scholar with degrees from Stanford and Columbia, he suddenly walked away from a promising career in academia; despite his ambition to teach, he rebelled against job offers that, he says, came to him just because of his Hispanic surname. Condemned by some for having forsaken his roots and for his negative views of affirmative action and bilingual education, he has been praised by many others for his intimate understanding of the impact of language on life. In this program with Bill Moyers, Rodriguez explains his opposition to bilingual education and talks about his experience growing up in America as the son of immigrants; he also discusses the differences between Mexican and American cultures.




MARIA FULL OF GRACE
October 4
10AM-NOON Multicultural Center, Woodbury Campus Center, Portland Campus
3pm-5pm Husky Hut, Brooks Student Center, Gorham Campus
A bright, spirited 17-year old, Maria Alvarez, lives with three generations of her family in a cramped house in rural Colombia and works stripping thorns from flowers in a rose plantation. The offer of a lucrative job involving travel--in fact, becoming a drug "mule"--changes the course of her life. Far from the uneventful trip she is promised, Maria is transported into the risky and ruthless world of international drug trafficking. Her mission becomes one of determination and survival and she finally emerges with the grace that will carry her forward into a new life.




THE LETTER
October 11
10AM-NOON Multicultural Center, Woodbury Campus Center, Portland Campus
3pm-5pm Husky Hut, Brooks Student Center, Gorham Campus
In the wake of the 9/11 tragedy a firestorm erupts when Mayor Larry Ramond of Lewiston, Maine sends an open letter to 1,100 newly arrived Somali refugees advising them that the city's resources are strained to the limit and asking other Somalis not to move to the city. Interpreted as a rallying cry by white supremacist groups across the United States, THE LETTER documents the crossfire of emotions and events, culminating in a "hate" rally convened by the World Church of the Creator and a counter "peace" rally involving 4,000 Lewiston residents supporting ethnic and cultural diversity.




A CIDADE DAS MULHERES (city of women):
October 18
10AM-NOON Multicultural Center, Woodbury Campus Center, Portland Campus
3pm-5pm Husky Hut, Brooks Student Center, Gorham Campus
The documentary Cidade das Mulheres (The City of Women) is an absolute joy to watch. This documentary, directed by Lazaro Faria, presents an intimate view of Mae Stella de Oxossi who is perhaps the most influential figure in African religious traditions in Bahia. She is the head priestess from Axeacute; Opó Afonjá founded in 1910, and which is one of the most important "terreiros" or African-Brazilian spiritual communities in Salvador, Bahia. In a gentle, yet self-assured manner Mae Stella, who has always been ahead of her time, explains from a feminine perspective the history of Candomblé in Bahia and the matriarchal system of power created and controlled by the women who practice these traditions. Mae Stella also reveals details from her own life story and how she was called to her position. A tribute the many notable women who appear in the film, Cidade das Mulheres also pays tribute to Ruth Landes, the author of the book The City of Women published in 1947.




GUMMO:
October 25
10AM-NOON Multicultural Center, Woodbury Campus Center, Portland Campus
3pm-5pm Husky Hut, Brooks Student Center, Gorham Campus
Xenia, Ohio, is a small poor and boring city that never fully recovered after a tornado in the 1970s. Teenager Solomon and his slightly older friend Tummler, have nothing to do but kill time, buying glue to sniff and get high.




WHAT WAS TAKEN AND WHAT WE SELL:
November 1
10AM-NOON Multicultural Center, Woodbury Campus Center, Portland Campus
3pm-5pm Husky Hut, Brooks Student Center, Gorham Campus
A video montage explores tourism, stereotypes, and the exploitation of Native America's cultural legacy.




STATE OF THE TRIBES:
November 8
10AM-NOON Multicultural Center, Woodbury Campus Center, Portland Campus
3pm-5pm Husky Hut, Brooks Student Center, Gorham Campus
Maine Public Broadcasting Presentation covering the first time in Maine History that Maine Tribal Chiefs were allowed to address the Maine State Legislature. They addressed a Joint Legislative Session of the House and the Senate. The Addresses were made by then Chiefs Richard Stevens of the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Pleasant Point, Richard Doyle, Chief of the Passamaquoddy Tribe at Indian Township and Barry Dana, Chief of the Penobscot Nation.

DANGEROUS LIVING:
November 15
10AM-NOON Multicultural Center, Woodbury Campus Center, Portland Campus
3pm-5pm Husky Hut, Brooks Student Center, Gorham Campus
Dangerous Living: Coming Out in the Developing World is the first documentary to deeply explore the lives of gay and lesbian people in non-western cultures. Traveling to five different continents, we hear the heartbreaking and triumphant stories of gays and lesbians from Egypt, Honduras, Kenya, Thailand and elsewhere, where most occurrences of oppression receive no media coverage at all. By sharing the personal stories coming out of developing nations, Dangerous Living sheds light on an emerging global movement striving to end discrimination and violence against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people.




THE EDUCATION OF LITTLE TREE:
November 29
10AM-NOON Multicultural Center, Woodbury Campus Center, Portland Campus
3pm-5pm Husky Hut, Brooks Student Center, Gorham Campus
After his parents die, a young boy called Little Tree is raised by his Cherokee grandparents in the mountains of Eastern Tennessee during the 1930s. The novel follows Little Tree's daily life as he helps his grandparents learn to stand up for their rights, and in the process he learns a great deal about standing up for his own. As the novel progresses, Little Tree describes the simple life lessons he learns by living in touch with Nature.

THE ANGRY EYE:
December 6
10AM-NOON Multicultural Center, Woodbury Campus Center, Portland Campus
3pm-5pm Husky Hut, Brooks Student Center, Gorham Campus
Jane Elliott has no intention of retiring until prejudice and discrimination are eradicated from our society. "Does that mean I have a job for life?" she sighs. "I think it does." Elliott takes no joy in such job security. A former third-grade teacher, she began conducting her "blue-eyed" exercises the day after Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination. Taking pigmentation - in this case, eye color - as an arbitrary dividing line, she builds a microcosm of contemporary American society. With startling force and emotional intensity, Elliott demonstrates the effects of racial prejudice, compelling her more privileged participants to live in another world for the longest two and a half hours of their lives. The film documents one such session, interweaving the classroom exercise with post-session interviews that show the students struggling to come to terms with their recent experiences.