Athens Goes International

#6. See a movie during the week long Athens International Film and Video Festival

After three years of hearing about The Athens International Film and Video Festival, I finally decided to take advantage of the opportunity to see some pretty sweet films and documentaries.

For an entire week, the seemingly teeny tiny Athena Cinema (tucked away on Court Street) shows films that come from around the world. Many of the documentaries feature a lot of political, international and religious issues.

The best part? The film festival is FREE to Ohio University students with a valid student id.

I actually found out this week (April 23-29) was THE week for the festival. Naturally, I've been living under a rock (a rock filled with midterms and interviews) and didn't find out about the film festival until Wednesday. Of course, Wednesday was the second to last day.

I immediately found the schedule for the films online and decided I wanted to see Orgasm Inc. For those who don't know, I am currently working on my certificate in the Women's and Gender Studies program. Orgasm Inc is a documentary about the quest to create a pharmaceutical product for a "disease" that doesn't exist--female sexual dysfunction.

I immediately thought of Jenny Bak, a very good friend of mine as well as someone I've taken several WGS classes with. Just as I expected, Jenny was as excited as I was. Plus, she was a film festival first timer, too.

When we arrived, there were literally multiple movies playing at the same time. I was amazed to see the variety in topics--ranging from a documentary on skateboarding culture to the oddities found in families. Jenny was especially interested in My Neighbor My Killer, a documentary about the Rwandan Genocide. Unfortunately, it was playing at the same time as Orgasm Inc.

However, Orgasm Inc did not disappoint. It was insightful and gave a scary look into pharmaceutical companies and their marketing strategies. I can only imagine how fantastic some of the other films were.

As we left, we both couldn't believe we had missed out on such an AWESOME event for the first two years. Jenny said, "I wish I would have known about the Athens Film Festival earlier. I'll for sure be seeing movies every day at next year's fest!"


Until next time,
Mak

P.S.- Did you see any movies at the film festival this year? If so, what do you recommend?