Immigration. Race. Gender equality. Women’s issues. All of these topics and more will be prevalent in the six films shown at this year’s Tournées Film Festival. The third-annual French film festival provides students with a chance to dive headfirst into a culture that is marked by artful, indie films that are both well-made and thought-provoking in nature. Mostly, however, the festival is bringing a small slice of France to NC State through a medium that proves universal: pop culture. The festival began on Feb. 1 and will run until March 1, with screenings being held in Witherspoon Student Cinema and Hunt Library.

Founded in 1995, Tournées Film Festival marks a national effort to bring French cinema to American colleges and universities. In 2016, NC State got on board, thanks to the Global Training Initiative’s proactive desire to grow and foster a greater sense of French culture here at the university. Becky Cibulskis, program assistant of NC State’s Global Training Initiative, was tasked with bringing the festival to campus immediately after being hired three years ago. After receiving a grant to fund the festival, Cibulskis worked on forming a film committee dedicated to the festival’s success, which has to do with far more than just screening foreign films on campus.

“Obviously it’s focused on French language and French culture, but we have a much broader overall goal of trying to bring international perspectives to NC State students,” Cibulskis said. “We see film as a meaningful gateway to get people in the door who wouldn’t necessarily be interested in studying another language or going abroad, but just to get them to do something they would on a normal evening or weekend, and to bring that international perspective of regular topics that people are talking about.”

The festival’s six films include “April and the Extraordinary World,” “Black Girl,” “My Life as a Zucchini,” “Frantz,” “Fatima” and “Mustang.”

Diverse, dramatic and relevant in nature, this year’s lineup is impressive through and through. From the eye-opening depiction of immigration and social class through the lens of an Algerian woman residing in the suburbs of France in “Fatima,” to the use of animation in telling the inspirational story of a child living in a group home after his mother’s death in “My Life as a Zucchini,” the festival did not shy away from difficult topics that deserve to be talked about. Cibulskis explained some of the key differences between French and American films.

“One of the biggest differences between French film and traditional Hollywood film is that there’s not always a happy ending [in French films],” Cibulskis said. “I think it’s something that, as an American, I never realized I expected out of films until I started not getting it from other films. When you leave the theater without that happy ending you’re really contemplating things a lot more than you would be otherwise.”

Clearly, the educational and cultural components are what make the festival stand out amongst the many film screenings that take place on campus. Further adding to the festival’s opportunity for educational advancement are the film’s introductions, which are done by knowledgeable professors that offer key background information on the film at hand. This helps students further understand the context surrounding the film being shown, which is vital in terms of understanding and reflection on the film’s layered themes.

Cibulskis explained the importance of exposing oneself to the international perspectives, whether it be by attending this year’s film festival or embarking on another cultural opportunity for personal growth and advancement.

“I truly believe that if you don’t take the time to see things from a different perspective, or to look at someone else’s point of view, you’re really missing a lot of what exists out there in the world,” Cibulskis said. “Even when you’re talking about something like going to the movies — that is culturally different all over the place —  you may find that you’re not right about everything that you think you’re right about, and it gives you the opportunity to explore your own culture in ways that you wouldn’t necessarily be able to do without that perspective.”

Another key face behind this year’s Tournées Film Festival is that of Ilin Misaras, assistant director of the Global Training Initiative, who has worked to ensure the event is a success. For Misaras, who studied French language at New York University and has travelled to France multiple times, French culture lies close to heart. Misaras elaborated on the importance of broadening one’s film-related horizons.

“It’s really interesting, because [French cinema] is so different from American cinema,” Misaras said. “It’s good to get a different perspective and watch a different type of film, even in addition to French films […] there’s a whole world of cinema out there that students may or may not be exposed to.”

As the film festival is completely free and open to the public, community members are welcome to attend in addition to NC State students and staff. The French community that exists not just in Raleigh, but in North Carolina as a whole, is impressive.

The Global Training Initiative works closely with the France-based SKEMA Business School, which has a location right here on Centennial Campus, immersing many French students into the NC State community.

“I think with SKEMA coming to NC State’s campus there’s a lot more French language being spoken and a lot more of that culture as well,” Misaras said.

The festival’s dates and times can be found at https://projects.ncsu.edu/gti/tournees/.