KNOXVILLE –- “Monsoon Wedding,” an award-winning 2001 film about romantic entanglements during a traditional Punjabi wedding in Delhi, will be the focus of Intercultural Intersections at 2 p.m. Sunday in Hodges Library Auditorium.
Intercultural Intersections, sponsored by the Ready for the World initiative, is a series of free Sunday afternoon events designed to help UT students, faculty, staff and the public explore cultures meeting across national, ethnic, racial, religious, political and sexual boundaries. Events include films, forums and more.
In “Monsoon Wedding,” love, lust and hope envelop an upper middle-class Indian family and their worldwide guests as they celebrate for four days the arranged marriage of their daughter to an East Indian man from Texas. Aside from examining the tradition of arranged marriage, the film broaches a host of controversial subjects, including an extramarital affair, child sexual abuse, parent-child conflicts and homosexuality. Writer Sabrina Dhawan penned the first draft of the screenplay while in Columbia University’s MFA film program. “Monsoon Wedding” was nominated for a Golden Globe award, and earned over $20 million at the box office.
The goal of “Ready for the World: The International and Intercultural Awareness Initiative” is to transform the campus into a culture of diversity that best prepares students for working and competing in the 21st century. The initiative involves increasing the diversity among students, faculty and staff; infusing the curriculum with international and intercultural content; expanding study-abroad and work-study opportunities; and encouraging students to take advantage of all of these opportunities.
For more information about Ready for the World, see http://www.utk.edu/readyfortheworld/.
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Contact:
Amy Blakely, (865) 974-5034, amy.blakely@tennessee.edu