For my first response of the Spring 2020 semester, I chose to write about my experiences at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. I attended this festival from January 26 to January 31 and was privileged to view several film premieres. I chose to reflect on this event as a Campus event. Even though the event occurred off campus and out of the state of Ohio, I was given the opportunity to attend Sundance through my involvement with the Film and Video Society, an Ohio State organization. Therefore, I believe this event serves as a Campus-related event.

One of the films that I was able to view while attending the festival was Minari, written and directed by Lee Isaac Chung. The film centers around David, a young Korean American boy whose family moves from California to rural Arkansas in the 1980s. David’s father wishes to build a farm from the untapped soil of the area, while his mother is horrified by their new living conditions. The sudden change throws the family’s finances and stability into disarray, further disorganized by the arrival of David’s mischievous grandmother. The story is viewed through young David’s eyes, allowing the audience to bear witness to the family’s struggles and triumphs. This was my favorite film that I was able to view at Sundance – it was impeccably done.

I was also able to view Spaceship Earth while at Sundance, one of the films I was most excited for. Spaceship Earth is a documentary feature that chronicles the rise and fall of Biosphere 2 and the people who lived inside of it for two years. Questions about the validity of the experiment are posed and explored, combining interviews with archival footage and photographs from both inside and outside the Biosphere. The documentary goes further than allowing the audience to simply experience Biosphere 2; instead, the documentary also asks us to consider our own planet – Biosphere 1, as the members of the experiment refer to it – and our own human effect on the place we call home.

Both of these films are related to International Affairs in different ways. Minari, a fiction piece, shows us both the immigrant experience and growing up as a first-generation American. David, as a member of both the Korean and American communities, struggles with his identity from a very young age. In the film, when his grandmother comes to help take care of him, he tells her that she isn’t a “real” grandma, because she acts more like a Korean grandma instead of an American one. The film allows us to exist simultaneously within and without, just as David does in his separate cultures. In Spaceship Earth, a non-fiction piece, human connection with the environment and other human beings is explored. Our climate crisis and international affairs are intertwined, and this documentary looks at an attempt to mitigate the harmful effects of climate change. However, the subsequent failure of the experiment causes us to consider humanity’s own shortcomings. Therefore, both of these films are closely related to International Affairs, and can be used to understand greater global interdependency.