The Lethbridge International Film Festival today partnered with Lethbridge Public Library has been showing International films in Lethbridge for the last 30 years. We started out showing the films in the Public Library Theatre Gallery and have come full circle, returning to the renovated Public Library Theatre. The Lethbridge International Film Festival committee is a group of motivated, enthusias
tic volunteers who apart from balancing their day jobs are contributing to this wonderful cause. This film festival started as part of the public education mandate of the World Citizen Centre specifically to raise public awareness and increase understanding of complex global issues. It was felt that film was an excellent medium to showcase a variety of film styles from around the globe highlighting social issues which ultimately impact all of us. By viewing issues in other countries, we learn more about our world and about our interconnection. The distance of seeing social issues elsewhere forces us to see, question, and ultimately begin to deal with our social injustices. As the films were often provocative or disturbing, the format included a speaker to help the viewer contextualize the content. Speakers ranged from individuals who were from the country the film portrayed to academics who analyzed the film from an historical, philosophical, social, political, or anthropological perspective. Having a speaker prior to and or following the film, was a completely new and radical concept which over the years has been a model for others to copy. The Lethbridge International Film Festival committee realizes that Lethbridge as a community has grown in the intervening years. We appreciate the support and donations extended by the community members who have stayed with us for 26 years and who encourage us to continue organizing this event.
