Anthropology’s popular Global Visions Film Series (GVFS) will bring an exciting array of films to the community of Grand Forks for the 9th consecutive year. The Global Visions Film Series presents two films per month in the Memorial Union Lecture Bowl. The series is currently the only venue in Grand Forks to view award-winning, nationally recognized independent films from a wide variety of contemporary film makers around the world. This fall, the series will bring nine films to UND. All films begin at 7 p.m.

The series begins on Wednesday, Feb. 8, with "Days of Glory" directed by Rachid Bouchareb teams with screenwriter Olivier Morelle to offer a revealing look at the brave contributions made by North African soldiers who fought for France during World War II in this emotionally-charged war drama starring Jamel Debbouze, Samy Naceri, Sami Bouajila, and Bernard Blancan. “Days of Glory" is an infantry film, and Bouchareb puts his camera right down in the dirt with his men. That's the thing that strikes you most about the battle scenes, which are shot with impact and immediacy -- not the blood, not the smoke, but the dirt. When charges explode, the soldiers are showered in soil and the image itself goes black, as if the men and the camera were already being buried.

In one harrowing sequence, as the soldiers swarm up a slope to overwhelm a Nazi bunker, Bouchareb cuts from ground-level action to the position of officers watching from afar. It's a moment out of Tolstoy, in which the men really do resemble ants scrambling over a hill. Scores of them drop dead in their tracks, but the waves of specks keep advancing until they seem unstoppable. The original French title is "Indigenes," a term for hundreds of thousands of "indigenous" colonial African soldiers who fought for France in World War II. The film, the Algerian nominee for the best foreign-language film Oscar and the winner of a special acting ensemble award at the Cannes Film Festival, follows a group of indigenes from Algeria to Morocco, through Italy to Provence, and finally to a village in Alsace, where they station themselves in anticipation of joining the invading Allied troops” (Jim Emerson & Robert Ebert.com Feb. 23, 2007) This is a must see film. Rated R.

Global Visions is partnering with the Center for Human Rights and Genocide Studies in the presentation of the film Question One, screened on March 21. In addition, the series is assisting in supporting the upcoming exhibit of the Holocaust Memorial Museum’s exhibit “Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals: 1933-1945 in the Memorial Union on March 1–25. We are also collaborating with the Era Bell Johnson Multicultural Center and the new Interim Director Melika Carter.

All films in the Global Visions Film Series are award winning national and international films, whose cinematic acuity and artistic perspectives reveal the realities of daily life from cross-cultural perspectives, exposing the unity and disparity of the human condition around the world.

All films begin at 7 p.m. on various Tuesday and Wednesday evenings this semester. The series will continue through May 9, at the Memorial Union Lecture Bowl. The series is free and open to the public. Suggested donations of $1.00 are encouraged. Film-goers are encouraged to come early to ensure a seat.

Other movies will be:

• Boycott, 2001 – Wednesday, Feb. 22
• Precious, 2009 – Wednesday, Feb. 29
• The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler 2009 – Monday, March 5
• Question One – Wednesday, March 21 (Partnership with the UND Center for Human Rights & Genocide Studies
• Whaledreamers 2008 – Tuesday, April 10
• Earth 2007 – Tuesday, April 24
• Transamerica – Wednesday, May 2
• The Laramie Project 2002 – Wednesday, May 9