The United Nations as a global classroom.

• Author: Seret, Roberta

WHAT BETTER GLOBAL CLASSROOM could exist than the United Nations, where the "world" is part of its daily activities? And what more effective medium is there than film to transpose young people to worlds far beyond their imagination?

Now entering its fourth year, the International Film Festival has created in the United Nations a classroom where high school students can travel to places they have never known before. Their professors are ambassadors and members of the Permanent Missions to the United Nations and their instructors are the UN tour guides. The subject matter is international events and universal understanding, and foreign film is the medium.

With the support of the UN Department of Public Information (DPI) and a "good neighbour grant" from the Ford Foundation (2003-2006), the Film Festival has been able to invite more than 4,000 students from New York City's 80 public high schools to attend a tailor-made tour of the United Nations Headquarters, followed by a screening of a foreign film and a question-and-answer session moderated by the host country's Permanent Mission.

Since the creation of the programme, we have been privileged to share with students the following films: Osama (Afghanistan), Battle of Algiers (Algeria), March of the Penguins (Antarctica/France), Central Station.(Brazil), Beijing Bicycle (China), The Chorus (France), Beyond Silence (Germany), Water (India), The Circle (Iran), Marooned in Iraq (Iran/Iraq), Return to the Land of Wonders (Iraq), Cinema Paradiso (Italy), Dreams (Japan), Before the Rain (Macedonia), Himalaya (Nepal), Hotel Rwanda (Rwanda), Child Soldiers in Sierra Leone (Sierra Leone), The Way Home (South Korea), Tsotsi (South Africa), My Life As A Dog (Sweden), Journey of Hope (Switzerland), Journey to the Sun (Turkey), The New World (United States), Bend It Like Beckham (United Kingdom), Amelie (France), The Little Chinese Seamstress (China/France) and Sophie Scholl (Germany).

Now that the United Nations has begun holding premieres and screening of films, we have had opening previews with actors, directors and producers. Watching the students mesmerized when an actor magically disappears from the screen to suddenly reappear in person on the podium to greet them and laugh with them has been a rewarding experience for me. To hear the students, scintillating and uninhibited, ask questions that were so much on target has marked a success for DPI and the contributing Missions of UN Member States. It is...