The evening of Thursday, Feb. 2 kicked off the start of the inaugural (Inter)Continental Film Festival. The festival was created and directed by Matthew Mirkovic ’23 and lasted three days. Five different films from four different countries were shown and accompanied by Q&A sessions.

The opening film was

Welcome Venice

, an Italian film highlighting the dangers of climate change and overtourism in the city. The viewing was preceded by a Q&A session with Professor Federica Di Blasio, who specializes in Italian film. Attendee Margret Mallavarapu ’24 described the film as “eye opening to climate change in old cities” and “loved the experience of attending a film festival for the first time.” Students celebrated the start of the festival with a reception in The Little Pub after the film. The night was filled with good food, fun and even a performance by student band The Blackberries.

On Friday two short films from the United States,

Penguin Boy

and

Bryan Allen

, were shown in addition to the Bolivian film

Utama

, which featured a Q&A with Professor of Hispanic Studies Marcelo Carosi. Similar to

Welcome Venice

,

Utama

deals with issues of displacement due to climate change, but occurs in the rural mountainous Altiplano region.

The final showing on Saturday night was Chinese film

Chinese Closet

, with a recorded Q&A with the film’s director and producer Popo Fan.

Chinese Closet

highlighted the experience and struggle of LGBTQ+ people in China during the early 2000s where sexual identity was scarcely talked about. Overall, students enjoyed a wide variety of films in various languages as well as the opportunity to ask questions and learn more about the films after.

Mirkovic was inspired to create the film festival while studying abroad at the University of London this past fall. Having always been a fan of film, he wanted to explore film curation further. “I have always enjoyed film, especially international film, which I have been exposed to through my Chinese major,” said Mirkovic when describing why he was drawn to selecting foreign language films. Additionally, Mirkovic said, “attending the Tribeca Film Festival and BFI London Film Festival in 2022 also opened my eyes to how amazing film festivals can be.” This combination ultimately led him to take a class on film festival history and curation, and when Mirkovic was assigned a project to create his own film festival proposal, “the idea for actually putting together the (Inter)Continental Film Festival was born.”

Mirkovic was excited by how responsive Hamilton administrators were to his proposal for the film festival. Initially, Mirkovic planned to feature student and alumni films in addition to international ones, but found it challenging to obtain films created by members of the Hamilton community. The international films were selected by Mirkovic through recommendations by Hamilton’s foreign language professors. After receiving funding from Student Activities, the Italian Department and Spanish Club, Mirkovic’s vision came to life. While showing a film of his own at the festival, Mirkovic says he prefers a more organizational role as event director and curator.

Mirkovic’s goal was for students to gain a greater appreciation for international film through exposure to non-English language films and begin to explore film festivals independently. Sofia Bagdade ’24 described the event as “a wonderful way to bring different communities together through a shared love of art and culture.” Although he is graduating this spring, Mirkovic hopes that another student may be inspired to continue the (Inter)Continental Film Festival next year now that the funding and blueprint are established.