French film festival planned at Missouri Southern

(From Southern News Service)

A joint effort between the Honors Program and Spiva Library has resulted in a grant through the French-American Cultural Exchange (FACE) Foundation to stage a French film festival on the campus of Missouri Southern State University.

The university has received a $2,200 grant to become part of the Tournées Film Festival, a program of the FACE Foundation in partnership with the Cultural Services of the French Embassy. The program, now in its 20th year, has partnered with more than 450 universities to bring French cinema to campuses in the United States.

Its mission is to help colleges and universities in the United States create a yearly French film series that might one day become self-sustaining, and to promote French culture.

“It’s a prestigious grant awarded every year to select universities across the country,” said Dr. Michael Howarth, director of the Honors Program. “I spoke with Amber Carr, marketing and outreach librarian, and we thought this would be a great opportunity for Missouri Southern, especially with our international mission.”

They submitted the grant application in May and recently received word that Missouri Southern received funding to host the film festival.

“The funding covers the distribution costs for each of the movies,” said Howarth. “They give you a list of movies that you can choose from. You have to show at least six films within a four-week period. We’ll start the week after spring break in 2016.”

The selections available include classics, featured tiles and alternative choices. Howarth said that stipulations of the grant say that the festival must include a film from the classic category and five from the other two. At least one of the films shown during Missouri Southern’s festival will be an animated title, he said.

“Right now, we’re watching movies and figuring out which ones we want to choose,” Howarth said.

The films, screening dates and times will be announced later this fall.

The Tournées Festival is made possible with the support of the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the U.S., the Centre National de la Cinématographie et de l’Image Animée, and the Franco-American Cultural Fund.