The Bollywood film festival will feature its last film of the semester Tuesday, Oct. 30 at 7 p.m. in the Riverside Community Center. The program, which was started in 2009, was created by Amy Holmes-Tagchungdarpa, the faculty in residence for Riverside, as a way to help students learn more about Bollywood and Indian culture.
“I wanted to set up a film series, to give students the opportunity to meet each other, relax, but also to learn something,” Holmes-Tagchungdarpa said.
Holmes-Tagchungdarpa’s research and teaching is in the field of Asian history, with an emphasis on connections between Tibet, China and India. Tagchungdarpa said through her classes, she learned her students had an idea of what Bollywood was, but they did not know about it outside of its references in American popular culture.
“They don’t know much more than that,” she said. “So I set up the festival as a way for UA students to come along and learn about Bollywood films. In doing so, they learn a lot about Indian culture, society, politics and history.”
Bollywood is a large part of Indian culture. The Bollywood film screenings allow students to get a more in-depth view of what it is like to be a part of Indian society. This understanding of India is especially important, Holmes-Tagchungdarpa said, due to the role India plays on a global level.
“India is a growing political and economic powerhouse worldwide, so students need to have some insight into and understanding of Indian culture and society on a pragmatic level to prepare them for the globalized world,” Holmes-Tagchungdarpa said. “So these films are a great platform for developing this.”
Director of residential communities Christopher J. Holland agrees about the importance of these film screenings.
“Any cultural experience that allows a student to be more aware of the larger world is always important to a student’s development,” he said. “Once you are aware there is ‘something else’ out there, you can never be ignorant to it not existing again. In that education, you are driven to either learn more, share more, or to deny it. If you don’t enjoy the experience, you will deny it. If you do enjoy it, you will want more.”
Holmes-Tagchungdarpa also said college is an ideal place to branch out and learn about other cultures, and she believes the Bollywood film festival is an ideal venue for that.
“It does a great deal, in terms of creating a forum for raising awareness of other cultures, as well as acknowledging diversity and tolerance amongst our students,” she said. “It gives insight into another world view, which is what college is meant to be about.”
However, Holmes-Tagchungdarpa said the films are mostly meant to be fun.
“Ultimately, they should not be overanalyzed,” she said. “They are fun, light-hearted films that can be engaged with as an insight into how another culture relaxes.”
