ECU's Foreign Film Festival Opens with "My Perestroika"

ECU’s Foreign Film Festival kicks off its sixth season on Friday, February 5th with "My Perestroika," a Russian-language documentary that follows five ordinary Russians living in extraordinary times – from their sheltered Soviet childhood, to the collapse of the Soviet Union during their teenage years, to the constantly shifting political landscape of post-Soviet Russia.

ECU's Foreign Film Festival features free foreign-language films on Fridays in February at four p.m. in the Raymond J. Estep multimedia center in the Bill S. Cole University Center at East Central University in Ada.

This year's first feature, "not only evocatively captures the Russian spirit and the yearnings of a generation, but . . .  also masterfully chronicles the historic collapse of the Soviet Union and its complex aftermath," according to David Lewis of The San Francisco Chronicle.

This screening of "My Perestroika" is made possible in part through a Startalk grant that ECU has been awarded the past three years to host a Russian language summer camp for high school students from Oklahoma and other states. "My Perestroika" is one of five planned post-program activities that allow students to maintain the connection with Russian language and culture after the residential portion of the program is over.

Each film in the festival will be given a brief introduction by an ECU student or faculty member. After each screening lucky audience members will be given books, DVDs, gift certificates and other door prizes that will either be associated with the featured culture or  will be donated by a local business.  Local businesses supporting this year's Festival include the Hampton Inn (offering one free night),  Cinemark Ada, Hotshots, Truffles and Swirls, Nacho Bizness, and Mojo’s Coffee Bar. 

ECU's Foreign Film Festival is an expansion of the French Film Festival which has been held on the ECU campus since 2011. In recent years, hundreds from ECU and the surrounding communities have attended screenings of foreign-language films that are not screened in local cinemas.  The Festival is now hosted by ECU SCREENS, with support from ECU’s Cultural Activities Committee, the ECU Foundation, and the Student Government Association,  in collaboration with Sigma Tau Delta (the International English Honors Society) and the Honors Student Association. 

For more information about ECU’s Foreign Film Festival, contact Dr. Rebecca Nicholson-Weir, co-director of ECU SCREENS, at (580) 559-5929 or rnichlsn@ecok.edu.