NOVA Libraries: Feature Film Friday
NOVA Libraries is excited to announce Feature Film Friday, a series highlighting films that are available to the campus community through our Video Streaming Collections. Each Friday, we will feature a different film being used by faculty to support college programming and coursework. All of the content in our Video Streaming Collections is available for free to everyone in the NOVA community and can be accessed from anywhere. To learn more about these collections and how you can include streaming video in your courses, check out this Streaming Video Guide.
This week, we are featuring four films in support of the AAPI Intercultural Learning Center on the Annandale Campus. In fall of 2021, NOVA received an AANAPISI grant from the Department of Education to establish and support the Asian Pacific Pedagogy for Equity, Achievement & Learning program (APPEAL). As part of this program, NOVA committed to creating the AAPI Intercultural Learning Center at the Annandale Campus, which hosts mentorship meetings for AAPI students and connects members of the NOVA community to AAPI cultural resources. This week’s featured films were requested by Dr. Mei Lan Frame (AN) and Heather Moser (AN) of the AAPI Intercultural Learning Center because they represent a diverse range of issues relevant to the experiences of the AAPI community.
This week’s featured films are Gook, Lucky Grandma, Minari, and The Wedding Banquet. Although each of these films is quite different in terms of content and plot, they’re united in their thoughtful representations of AAPI people and issues. These films, which are written and directed by AAPI individuals and star AAPI actors. They address a wide variety of topics that, although focused specifically on AAPI people, resonate with viewers outside of these communities as well. For example, issues related to family are a recurring theme in many of these featured films, as they address the significant role that parental approval and reverence for elders can play. Additionally, the films provide insights into the experiences of AAPI communities within the United States specifically, touching on the lives of AAPI immigrants and what it is like to be a minority in the United States. The Wedding Banquet is a particularly good choice in terms of intersectionality, as it addresses LGBTQIA+ issues in the AAPI community. Through their humanizing and humorous depictions of AAPI customs, cultures and communities, they prove to be an invaluable resource for deepening our understanding of these topics.
This week’s films are available for streaming through Swank Digital Campus, a platform that NOVA Libraries uses to purchase individual titles for classroom use. Although these films are primarily used for coursework, they can also be watched outside of class for fun, which we hope you’ll do with our featured films each week! Requests for Swank films are made during the spring semester, which is our annual Swank Request Period. For more information, contact Melanie Medina or Molly Anderson. If you’re already using a film from our Video Streaming Collection in your course and want to be featured on a future Friday, please fill out this survey. Otherwise, keep an eye on the Daily Flyer to see what we spotlight next!
Watch this week’s featured films at the links below. These films are available on Swank Digital Campus until June 2023.
Submitted by:
Molly Anderson, WO-Librarian, MAnderson@nvcc.edu