World Cinema Mission Statement

World Cinema with Professor Frink Mission Statement

Hello, and welcome to World Cinema with Professor Frink.  World Cinema is a database filled with films from around the world personally procured by myself, Prof. Frink.   I am a licensed history teacher in Social Studies in secondary education, as well as a film fanatic.  Throughout my time as a teacher including subbing for all ages, I came to understand that we have severe inadequacies in how we teach history strictly from an American standpoint, hindering our student’s opportunities at gaining valued perspective.  Instead we have a large part of the population who has been taught history and the modern world from a highly ethnocentric, linear point of view.  This in turn makes it harder for the average American student to empathize with different cultures from around the world, which in turn has a negative lasting effect on how we treat people from different cultures or societies than our own. 

The idea behind World Cinema is, “what if we created a database that helped students and teachers as a resource behind better understanding this beautiful, crazy world of ours?”   For the most part, teaching history especially in pre-college settings relies on textbook and online scholarly analysis.  This combined with the lecture aspect of teaching history in an effort to hit benchmarks in Common Core, can make Social Studies tedious for learners with many questioning how it will impact their lives.  What we’re missing, is really the idea that many students are visual learners, who if given the right material can really begin to appreciate the idea of diversity, and to respect all of the amazing cultures that populate the Earth. 

So, what is included in this database?  When focusing on World Cinema, I believe it is crucial to allow filmmakers from their respective countries to tell the story of their culture/society.  All too often, if we show films in Social Studies/History, it’s usually dressed up by Western filmmakers attempting to depict a society that they don’t belong to.  A great example I like to use the film Slumdog Millionaire.  Slumdog is a brilliant film in my opinion, but it has no place in this database as it’s about people living in the slums of India, but written by a British guy, and directed by a Scottish Guy.  If the writer or director were Indian or Indian British, then it would be perfect for this database.  The only time where this rule gets overturned is if the film is a documentary that I think accurately presents a specific aspect of the culture being represented. 

We have films that I have personally procured from all around the world in which we create a guide including the synopsis, film themes, and my personal analysis of how that film could be used in the classroom.  I have watched every minute of each film in this database, so I will be acting as your personal curator.  We also are working to include time stamps that can help the teacher or student writing an essay or creating a project focus on critical perspective illuminating scenes.   We also give a school grade breakdown for films in order to be age appropriate.  We break it down by country and eventually will have an easily accessible website that will hopefully be a guide for both teachers and students, especially ones in high school and college.  We here at World Cinema fully recognize the challenges of subtitles.  It’s really hard for students, especially younger ones, to follow especially for extended periods of time.  This is why we attempt to focus on certain aspects or scenes within the film, five to ten minutes, where a teacher can slowly break down what students are watching, and why it’s such a pivotal aspect of that culture.

With the addition of streaming content sites like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, HBOMax, or our favorite The Criterion Collection, popping up seemingly every day. There is now unprecedented access to the films included on World Cinema.   Combined with the new factor of Covid-19, I truly believe this is the time for this database.  Access to these films would not have been possible without the new technology and the increasing prospects of virtual learning in the age of a pandemic.   For the first time in its 91 year history, the Academy Awards gave Best Picture to a foreign language film, Parasite, and it won’t be the last time as brilliant filmmakers from all over the world are shining on a spotlight on the their respective homelands.  We have films for all ages, time periods, and genres, so there really is something for every major aspect of that particular country/culture.  

Enjoy!