DECOMPRESS AND LEARN ABOUT DIVERSITY

Midterms might have just now ended, but for students all over campus, the work is never really over.

With over a month of classes before Christmas break, it’s all too easy to focus on maintaining grades and completing the seemingly endless homework assignments. But making time to decompress and forget about the stresses of your college courses is just as important as studying. 

And what better way to decompress than a good movie?

Thanks to MHCC’s Multicultural & Diversity Resource Center, you’ll have the opportunity to escape from the incoming winter weather and watch a new documentary film every Friday for the rest of the school year.

Screenings of these documentaries are being held in the MDRC’s Room 1050 inside the Student Union, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Fridays. 

While the films focus primarily on telling stories of diversity and cultural analysis to provide an outlet for students to learn about other cultures and ways of life, students are encouraged to explore the Kanopy video streaming service and provide suggestions for future screenings.

Today’s film (screening Nov. 8) is “The Mask You Live In.” The film follows boys and young men as they struggle to stay true to themselves while negotiating America’s narrow definition of masculinity. Pressured by the media, their peer group, and even the adults in their lives, the protagonists confront messages encouraging them to disconnect from their emotions, devalue authentic friendships, objectify and degrade women, and resolve conflicts through violence.

These gender stereotypes interconnect with race, class, and circumstance, creating a maze of identity issues boys and young men must navigate to become “real men.”

The release schedule for the rest of the term will be as follows (further films TBA): 

Nov. 15: “More Than A Word: Native American Sports Mascots,” is an exploration of Native American-based sports mascots, especially the NFL Washington Redskins, and their impact on real-life attitudes, issues, and policies.

Nov. 22: “Call Her Ganda: Fighting for Justice After The Murder of a Filipina Transgender Woman.” The description provided: “When Jennifer Laude, a Filipina transwoman, is brutally murdered by a U.S. Marine, three women intimately invested in the case – an activist attorney, a transgender journalist, and Jennifer’s mother – galvanize a political uprising, pursuing justice and taking on hardened histories of U.S. imperialism.”