If you happened to find yourself walking past the Science Quad this past Thursday at 8 p.m., you would have stumbled across the International Film Festival hosted by the Bucknell Language Council. 

This second annual event featured seven short films from different countries, including Greece, Italy, Colombia, Russia, France, Hong Kong and Germany. All students were welcome to come and enjoy movie theater snacks while watching the films. 

“The film festival was a great experience,” Italian studies student Sante Nicolia ’23 said. “Being able to see how filmmaking varies in different countries really opened my eyes to the cultures of the world”. 

Giuliana Ferrara ’22, the Presidential Fellow for the Student Language Council, shared that this event was held to engage students in an entertaining way that can show the value of languages. 

“Languages are important to not only communicate with other people and across cultures but also to understand those cultures . . . it’s supposed to be a fun night to come out and also experience the cross-language community that exists on campus, not only within your own language but also across all 11 languages,” Ferrara said. 

Ferrara also shared more about the role of the Language Council at the University as a whole.

“Through our work we help promote additional language study on campus . . . essentially our role is to help build global citizens here on campus through languages and humanities,” Ferrara said. 

The Language Council not only hosts this film festival, but they also promote other events throughout the year. Another event they hold is the International Language Trivia Night that is normally held in the spring, which includes food and prizes for those who participate. 

In addition to these events, last spring the Language Council held a photo contest for International Commons in Coleman Hall. 

“We were thinking that it is basically only International Commons in name only and there wasn’t really anything in there that made it feel global, so we sponsored a photo contest where students could submit travel photos whether through study abroad or their own personal travel experiences. The student council voted on four photos to be displayed in that room and they are currently there,” Ferrara said. 

The Language Council offers opportunities for students to get involved on campus and learn more about the different cultures around the world. Through these events, University students are given the opportunity to break out of the “bubble” on campus and immerse themselves in new languages and cultures.