Associate Professor Marcia Mikulak speaks before the Tuesday viewing of Global Visions film “Compliance.” Photo by Chester Beltowski/The Dakota Student. 

As she has done the past 10 years, Marcia Mikulak, an associate professor of anthropology at UND, strives to show both students and people of the community new light through the Global Visions film series.

“Everyone likes to watch movies. Everyone likes to be told stories,” Mikulak said. “What better way to learn about the rest of world, then to expose yourself to film?”

The Global Visions Series brings screenings of  independent films made by contemporary filmmakers from all over the world to the Memorial Union Lecture Bowl.

This semester’s films focus mainly on events in the country, while other semesters feature films from other countries.

Recent showing

“Compliance,” the most recent film in the series, was shown Tuesday  in the Lecture Bowl of the Memorial Union.

The film is based on the true story of a teenage girl who was sexually harassed through her peers by a prank caller impersonating a police officer.

According to facts given at the end of the film, there has been 70 other similar cases in 30 different states.

Following the film, community member Irene Zieske, who has attended many Global Visions screenings, said the movies shown throughout the series make people think.

“It’s not like a sitcom that you watch on TV,” Zieske said.” They are nothing like you would see at the movie theater.”

Others who saw the film said it was harder to watch then the movie shown in September, as the issue concerned an individual, not a group. The first film of the series, “The Interrupters,” concentrated on a group of immigrants coming to the United States.

Moving forward

There are still four remaining movies scheduled to be shown in the final months of the semester.

The next film in the series, “Blue Like Jazz,” will be shown Oct. 22. The three films remaining after that are “Invictus,” “Amreeka” and “Bless Me Ultima.”

Previews for each of the films can be found on the Global Visions website.

Despite small numbers at the past two film screenings, Mikulak expects the crowds to pick up. An average turnout at a screening is 20 to 25 people, with as many as 100 people showing up in some cases.

Makulak hopes to gain insight on how to attract more viewers through surveys distributed after each screening.

Event history

This year marks the 10th year of the Global Visions. Mikulak first started teaching at UND around that time.

At that point, Mikulak said the event  was run through the Anthropology Club, and, as a group, they would vote on movies to show.

Recently though, Mikulak has partnered with Malika Carter, director of the Era Bell Multicultural Center and Ray Lagasse, director of international programs at the UND International Center to select films.

Mikulak said she and Carter look through catalogs to get ideas from films of the past few years. She also travels to movie festivals shown across the nation at other universities in order to find the newest films.

It has been a while since speakers accompanied the showings, but Mikulak said she does like to have people connected to films come and speak at the events to give the audience more insight.

The event is free for everyone, though a donation of $1 is suggested. Money is set aside for the film series, but organizers need donations to cover about 25 percent of the films’ cost.

Mathew McKay is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. He can be reached at [email protected]

Film schedule:

-Oct. 22: “Blue Like Jazz”

-Nov. 5: “Invictus”

-Nov. 19: “Amreeka” 

-Dec. 3: “Bless Me Ultima”