Cultural Events
Films Offer Entertaining Glimpse into American Culture and History (03/19/2008)
Once a month, the Embassy’s English Language Chay Chat Conversation Club meets at 3:00 pm on Friday to watch an American movie. Recent movies have included Philadelphia, It’s a Wonderful Life, and A Beautiful Mind. Not only do Chay Chat participants get to watch the movie and practice their English comprehension skills, but they also get to learn more about the subject or issue that the movie highlights. Before showing each film, members of the Embassy staff hold a small contest. They ask the audience questions that relate to the topic of the movie, and the audience member that answers each question correctly wins an English language book.
At the November showing of Philadelphia, which commemorated World AIDS Day, audience members learned about the new group of drugs that can effectively treat HIV and AIDS, ways that HIV can be transmitted and how to prevent themselves from becoming infected, and also how HIV or AIDS can be diagnosed. When it was released in 1993, Philadelphia was a groundbreaking film that changed many people’s perceptions about HIV/AIDS. It tells the story of a gay lawyer, played by Tom Hanks, who was fired by his conservative law firm after they learned he had AIDS. After being fired, he sues the law firm with the help of a homophobic attorney, played by Denzel Washington. Through the course of their legal battle, his attorney comes to sympathize with Beckett and to understand that he is no different from anyone else. By the end of this moving film, Beckett’s attorney sheds his homophobia and helps Beckett win the case against his former employers before he succumbs to AIDS.
In March, to commemorate International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, the audience watched the film Iron-Jawed Angels, which recounts a key chapter in U.S. history: the struggle of suffragists to pass the 19th Amendment. The film tells the true story of two defiant women, Alice Paul (Hilary Swank) and Lucy Burns (Frances O’Connor), who broke from the mainstream women’s rights movement and dared to push the boundaries of political protest to secure women’s voting rights in the 1920s. They also battled public opinion as they dared to criticize President Woodrow Wilson during a time of war. Many audience members commented that although they had read about these events in American history textbooks, seeing them depicted on the movie screen made the events and the women who fought to win these rights seem much more real and significant. Through the quiz that preceded the movie, audience members also learned about other famous American women and their contributions to society, including such women as Eleanor Roosevelt and Oprah Winfrey.
In June, the Embassy will show a modern American classic, Sleepless in Seattle, starring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. This film is part of a year-long series of events to honor the 35th anniversary of Sister City relationship between Seattle and Tashkent.
The Chay Chat Club gathers every Friday at the American Embassy at 4:00 pm for a discussion led by a native English speaker. Topics vary, but tend to focus on American culture, policies and society or on issues of global importance. If you would like to attend, you should call the Embassy at 120-5450 at least two days in advance to sign up. Movies are usually shown on one of the last Fridays of the month at 3:00 pm. The procedure for reserving a spot for the movie is the same.