World Cinema Day brings middle and high school students and teachers to Madison for a special free screening of a high-quality, international film with an introduction before the film and a Q&A/discussion after the film. Advance registration is required for this event.
Event schedule coming soon!
This is an annual event held in conjunction with the Wisconsin Film Festival.
2025 Film Selection: Yasmeen’s Element (2024)
April 4, 2025, 11 am
The Barrymore Theatre
Description: Yasmeen is eager to learn. Inside the school, her hopes and ambitions expand, even as outside, opportunity begins to shrink. On this particular day, these two worlds collide. Her professor gets pulled out of the classroom by an unknown military force, and briefly returns to give them their homework, each to give a presentation on a unique element from the periodic table. Once arriving home, Yasmeen realizes she’s lost her element. A day full of adventures and obstacles unfold as she urgently tries to track down her Professor’s house. Yasmeen is helped and sometimes hindered by those she encounters – a parable for what women’s education can be in an unstable place.
This is the second fiction feature film by critically acclaimed Pakistani-American director Amman Abbasi, whose previous film Dayveon played at Sundance Film Festival and Berlinale, and received two Spirit Award nominations. Shot in the remote Hunza region of northern Pakistan with a local, nimble crew, this film captures an authentic day-in-the-life story using non-actors from the town of Gulmit with the singular goal to capture a timeless portrait of a young Muslim girl in pursuit of an education.
Director Amman Abbasi will be there in-person with a post-film discussion.
Runtime: 76 minutes.
Sponsored by WIRC and the Wisconsin Film Festival
Previous World Cinema Days
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"Totem", World Cinema Day 2024
World Cinema Day 2024
2024 Film Selection: Totem (2022)
April 5, 2024, 11 am
Barrymore Theater (Map)
in Dutch with English subtitles
Ten-year-old Ama is the daughter of Senegalese asylum seekers. Rotterdam, where she has lived her whole life, feels like home. Ama’s life is changed when her mother and brother are brought into the police station for questioning and possible deportation. Ama sets off on a journey to find her father and avoid deportation herself. It is during this unexpected adventure that she uncovers the truth about where she comes from and who she is, thanks in part to her new companion, an extraordinary totem animal: a gigantic porcupine.
Sponsored by WIRC and the Wisconsin Film Festival
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"Rickshaw Girl", World Cinema Day 2023
World Cinema Day 2023
Rickshaw Girl, based on a novel by Mitali Perkins
Language: English/Bangla (Bengali)
Mitali Perkins herself will introduce the film and hold a discussion & Q&A after the film
A daring Bangladeshi teen-aged girl battles the dangers of the big city when she disguises herself as a boy to earn extra cash for her struggling family.
Learn more about the film and view the trailer here.