Report on the 2015 NUS Latin American and Spanish Film Festival.

Abstract

The 2015 Latin American and Spanish Film Festival (LASFF) in Samoa was hosted by the National University of Samoa (NUS) in partnership with the Argentine Embassy of New Zealand. This was the second year in which the festival was held in Samoa and it was managed by an organising committee comprised of NUS staff working on a volunteer basis and staff from the Argentine Embassy based in New Zealand. As the National tertiary institution in Samoa, NUS was pleased to support the LASFF in order to foster an educational environment of cross cultural awareness for NUS students, staff and the broader Samoan public. The 2015 LASFF was held from Monday 28th September to Saturday 3rd October. These dates were selected, in consultation with the Argentine Ambassador, His Excellency Fernando D.Escalona and the Vice Chancellor & President of NUS Professor Fui Le’apai Tu’ua Illaoa Asofou So’o to coincide with Semester 2 of the academic year when the greatest number of students and staff would be on campus. In the previous year, the event was held during Study Week in Semester 2, and the number of students on campus drops dramatically during this period. This document reports on the goals and outcomes of the 2015 LASFF event, and provides a discussion of the activities and actions that were successful this year, and those that could improve in the years to come. The goals of this year’s Samoan LASFF were as follows: a. To create an awareness of Latin American and Spanish culture on campus and throughout the broader Samoan public; b. To encourage tertiary students and NUS staff to engage with Latin American and Spanish culture through access to free films on campus; c. To encourage NUS students and staff to participate in cross-cultural events on campus; and d. To foster a neutral environment for students to explore other cultures.