For the four ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ juniors who took part in a private audience with the Dalai Lama in October, it was like “history happening in front of my eyes,” said Natalie Silver of Bennington, Vt.

The four were among 20 American college students now studying in Kathmandu on a School for International Training program that explores Tibetan and Himalayan cultures.

The SIT program is one of myriad programs around the world offered by ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ through the college’s Off-Campus Study Office.

“It was incredible,” says Silver, a history major, “to study Tibetan history and culture and its conflict with China, and then actually to meet the Dalai Lama and speak with him about those things.”

Silver’s fellow ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students were Ruth Baker of Minneapolis, Kristen Kelliher  of Norwich, Vt., and Jacob Nemeroff of Doylestown, Pa.

The students met with the Dalai Lama during a trip to Dharamsala, India.

Four ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ juniors were among 20 students who had a private audience with the Dalai Lama: Ruth Baker (far left, middle row) of Minneapolis, Minn., Jacob Nemeroff (next to Baker) of Doylestown, Pa., Kristen Kelliher (seated, with glasses, at center) of Norwich, Vt., and Natalie Silver (far left, seated) of Bennington, Vt. (Photograph courtesy of SIT Study Abroad)

The experience prompted Nemeroff to think about how perilous it is to engage the world in an antagonistic us-vs.-them mindset.

“The Dalai Lama said that you will be a much happier and productive person if you are able to foster feelings of compassion towards others and rid yourself of feelings of anger towards others. ”

While that’s not a novel concept, since Buddhism has been around for 2,500 years, His Holiness made his point with an unlikely analogy.

“He told us that a soldier who harbors feelings of anger towards the enemy is going to compromise his mental state and his physical capacity to shoot accurately,” Nemeroff says.

“If he was going to have the best shot at hitting his enemy, he should relinquish the negative energy from within in order to maintain composure.”

It was a surprising but effective way to explain a Buddhist tenet, says Nemeroff, adding that the ability to let go of anger and resentment is a handy tool.

Take college life, for example.

“ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ is a small physical space,” he says. “Inevitably, there’s tension between friends, and tension between professors and students.”

So, like Otis Redding sang, why not try a little tenderness? Why not let it go — whether anger over a bad grade, resentment that crops up during a group project or tension between roommates.

“Relinquishing anger from within is something that I and other ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students can do to enrich our academic and social experience,” Nemeroff says. “Exercising compassion in all aspects of our lives widens our own perspectives and allows us to embrace the perspectives of those around us.”

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College’s 2014 Fulbright recipients as of June 5, 2014. Top row, from left: K. Ailes, E. Gawarkiewicz, A. Hill, A. Lepre, C. Maeder. Bottom row: O. Minott, A. Munter, M. Ramey, J. Stewart, A. Strada.

Known as a top producer of students receiving prestigious Fulbright grants for teaching and research abroad, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ has announced that 10 seniors and former students have received Fulbright awards this year.

Supporting an academic year of research and teaching in more than 155 countries outside the United States, the Fulbright U.S. Student Program is funded primarily by the U.S. Department of State and sends some 1,500 U.S. citizens abroad annually.

This year, 16 current ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students or alumni were selected as Fulbright finalists. Of the 10 recipients, all but one were awarded English Teaching Assistantships, which support positions teaching English in primary and secondary schools or universities.

The exception was ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ senior Kathryn Ailes, who received a grant for study and research. She is ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ first Fulbright recipient to enter a master’s program in the U.K.

Meet ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ 2014 Fulbright recipients (except as indicated, all are members of the Class of 2014):

Kathryn Ailes of Swarthmore, Pa. A double major in English and dance, she received a grant for study and research and will enter the Masters of Research program at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland.

Ellen Gawarkiewicz of North Falmouth, Mass. A 2013 graduate of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, where she majored in environmental studies and graduated Phi Beta Kappa, Gawarkiewicz received a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship for work in Nepal.

Alexandra Hill of Wayland, Mass. A double major in Spanish and sociology, Hill was awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship for work in Brazil.

Ashley Lepre of Portland, Maine. A 2013 graduate of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, where she majored in English, Lepre was awarded an English Teaching Assistantship for Bulgaria.

Clara Maeder of Washington, D.C. A politics major, Maeder received an English Teaching Assistantship for Mexico.

Owen Minott of Needham, Mass. A politics major, Minott was awarded an English Teaching Assistantship for Brazil.

Anna Munter of Washington, D.C. A French and Francophone studies major, Munter received an English Teaching Assistantship for Malaysia.

Meg Ramey of San Francisco. A 2012 graduate of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, where she majored in English and graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, Ramey is the recipient of an English Teaching Assistantship for Mexico.

John Stewart of Keene, N.H. A double major in philosophy and politics, Stewart was awarded an English Teaching Assistantship for Brazil.

Amy Strada of North Salem, N.Y. An English major, Strada received an English Teaching Assistantship for the Czech Republic.

“Songful Vietnam” artistic director Phong Nguyen.

Mid-November concerts at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ reflect the diversity and international scope of the arts at the college.

In the span of four days, the college’s Olin Arts Center Concert Hall presents an evening of Vietnamese performing arts, two performances of Carl Orff’s choral masterpiece “Carmina Burana” and an afternoon of Indonesian music and shadow puppetry.

Songful Vietnam: Three Rivers — One Source, featuring performers in a variety of traditional genres, takes place at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 14.

The ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Choir, under the direction of John Corrie, performs “Carmina Burana” at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Nov. 15-16.

“Perang Kembang” (“The Flower Battle”), a family-friendly performance of Indonesian shadow puppetry by guest artists accompanied by the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Gamelan Orchestra, takes place at 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 17.

All those performances are open to the public at no cost, but tickets are required, available at . The Olin Arts Center Concert Hall is located at 75 Russell St. For more information, please call 207-786-6163 or email olinarts@bates.edu.

‘Songful Vietnam’

Under the artistic direction of Phong Nguyen, five performers from Vietnam and the United States offer Songful Vietnam: Three Rivers — One Source, an evening of music, poetry, dance and dramatic pieces from the traditions of the Hong (“Red”), Huong (“Perfume”) and Mekong river regions.

The event is co-sponsored by the departments of art and visual culture, music and theater, by the Asian studies program and by the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Museum of Art.

The diverse works on the program represent traditional, ethnic and contemporary influences, and draw on the lowland and Central Highland cultures of Vietnam.

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John Corrie conducts the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Choir.

‘Carmina Burana’

“Carmina Burana” may get its broadest exposure nowadays through the popularity of its opening theme as end-of-the-world movie soundtrack music. But in fact, the monumental choral work that German composer Orff created in the 1930s is a musical setting of poems dating back to the 13th century and celebrating nature, fate, tavern society and especially love.

The ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Choir is composed of 60 singers, including 10 student soloists. This production of “Carmina Burana” is arranged for two pianos and six percussionists including three ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students. The pianists for these performances are Chiharu Naruse and Bridget Convey of the college’s applied music faculty.

Corrie began teaching musicianship at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ in 1982, conducting the College Choir in 1986 and teaching voice in 1991, and he became college organist in 2005. He is a harpsichord and organ performer with degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory, Northwestern University and Yale University. He has been artistic director of the Maine Music Society since 2006.

Sumarsam in performance.

‘The Flower Battle’

The ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Gamelan Orchestra, a student ensemble performing Indonesian percussion-based music, will be joined by three guest artists from Wesleyan University for “The Flower Battle.” Puppet master Sumarsam and musician I. M. Harjito are well-known and highly respected gamelan musicians. Also performing is Maho Ishiguro, a doctoral student who will play a gamelan instrument called the “gender.”

This “wayang kulit,” or shadow puppet performance, is an hour-long story adapted from the Sanskrit epic “Mahabharata.” During a tumultuous time, the hero Arjuna attempts to clear his mind by taking a journey in a forest of great beauty. He and his companions are confronted by the fanged Cakil, a demon sent by the enemy, and his minions.

Ultimately they engage in the “Flower Battle,” which gives the puppeteer a chance to demonstrate his skill at the intricate manipulation of several puppets.

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Photograph by Zuhayr Reaz '16, who is doing fieldwork in Dhaka, Bangladesh, as part of his internship with WaterAid, a nonprofit helping people gain access to improved water and sanitation facilities.

Photograph by Zuhayr Reaz '16, who is doing fieldwork in Dhaka, Bangladesh, as part of his internship with WaterAid, a nonprofit helping people gain access to improved water and sanitation facilities.

Photograph by Zuhayr Reaz '16, who is doing fieldwork in Dhaka, Bangladesh, as part of his internship with WaterAid, a nonprofit helping people gain access to improved water and sanitation facilities.

Photograph by Zuhayr Reaz '16, who is doing fieldwork in Dhaka, Bangladesh, as part of his internship with WaterAid, a nonprofit helping people gain access to improved water and sanitation facilities.

Photograph by Zuhayr Reaz '16, who is doing fieldwork in Dhaka, Bangladesh, as part of his internship with WaterAid, a nonprofit helping people gain access to improved water and sanitation facilities.

Zuhayr Reaz ’16 is doing fieldwork in support of WaterAid in in his home country of Bangladesh, where nearly one in five people — 25 million — do not have access to improved water.

Name: Zuhayr Reaz ’16

Hometown: Dhaka, Bangladesh

Major: Economics

Adviser: Dr. Khairul Islam, country director for the nonprofit WaterAid and a recognized expert on sanitation and water issues facing the millions who live in the slums of Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Research Funding: ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Environmental Internship funded by the Moses Feldman Family Foundation and the Phillips Student Fellowship program.

1. What motivated you to seek this internship?

Growing up in Dhaka, I’ve seen poverty firsthand, and the work that WaterAid does is remarkable. In these slums people live in “buildings” that are just corrugated metal walls with a thin board as a roof, with some electricity from a stolen or illegal line and little or no indoor plumbing or toilets.

Dhaka is one of the poorest cities in the world in terms of its infrastructure. It has terrible drainage systems.

2. What are your day-to-day duties?

I’ve been working to coordinate a program of installing sanitary systems in urban Dhaka, including inside slums where no one has access to any form of safe public toilet or any hygienic method to carry out the process.

I’ve also been helping to record their usage and doing some data keeping in Excel.

A lot of my work has involved hosting hygiene workshops in slum schools for underprivileged children and carrying out art competitions in these schools. The goal is to raise awareness about environmental sustainability and taking care of the latrines that WaterAid has set up.

I also monitor the use and setup of deep tube wells that extract clean water from aquifers deep underground.

3. How do you see your coursework connecting to this internship?

I plan to major in economics with minors in mathematics. So far, I’ve taken two courses in physics, and courses in microeconomics, macroeconomics, atomic and molecular chemistry, chemical reactivity, calculus, and linear algebra, plus courses in acting and French.

This diverse coursework helps me make a reasonable impact in the implementation of projects by WaterAid — and help Dhaka become more environmentally sustainable.

4. The future?

I want to work in the sectors of environmental and human development.

With the exception of Hakimah Abdul-Fattah, Ashley Brunk, Cameron Sheldon and Destinee Warner, shown below, here are the 2013 Fulbright grant recipients, photographed during a May reception at the home of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ President Clayton Spencer. From left: Catherine Tuttle, Libby Egan, Tara Prasad, Marisa Mohrer, Spencer, Valerie Jarvis, Hansen Johnson, Nora Hanagan, Taryn O’Connell. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College.

2013 Fulbright grant recipient Hakimah Abdul-Fattah. Photograph by Michael Bradley/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College.

2013 Fulbright recipient Cameron Sheldon.

2013 Fulbright grant recipient Destinee Warner ’13. Photograph by Michael Bradley/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College.

Ashley Brunk ’13 received a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to Malaysia. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

• Hakimah Abdul-Fattah of Holland, Pa. An anthropology major and French minor, she received an English Teaching Assistantship for work in France.
• Ashley Brunk of Phoenix, Ariz. An English major and education minor, Brunk received a Fulbright English Teacher Assistantship for work in Malaysia.
• Emily “Libby” Egan of Harvard, Mass. A sociology major and education minor, she received an English Teaching Assistantship for work in Bulgaria.
• Nora Hanagan of Singapore. A politics major and education minor, she received an English Teaching Assistantship for work in Turkey.
• Valerie Jarvis of Granville, Mass. A major in biological chemistry with a minor in Spanish, she received an English Teaching Assistantship for work in Malaysia.
• Hansen Johnson of Stowe, Vt. A biology major and music minor, he received a research grant for work in Norway.
• Marisa Mohrer of Guilford, Conn. A psychology major and minor in German, she received a Fulbright Austria U.S. Teaching Assistantship.
• Taryn O’Connell of Georgetown, Mass. A major in environmental studies and minor in history, O’Connell was awarded an English Teaching Assistantship for work in Malaysia.
• Tara Prasad of Lincoln, R.I. A major in biological chemistry and minor in education, Prasad received an English Teaching Assistantship for work in South Korea.
• Cameron Sheldon of Canton, Conn. A politics major and Spanish minor, Sheldon received an English Teaching Assistantship for work in Armenia.
• Catherine Tuttle of Pittsford, N.Y. A double major in Spanish and English, Tuttle was awarded an English Teaching Assistantship for work in Spain.
• Destinee Warner of Providence, R.I. Warner received an English Teaching Assistantship for work in the Republic of Georgia.

Seven 2012 ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College graduates received Fulbright grants or related awards for teaching and conducting research in Argentina, Austria, Germany, Poland, the Slovak Republic and Vietnam.

Claire Lampen '12 received an academic grant from the Fulbright U.S. Student Program to conduct research in Germany. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College

Claire Lampen of St. Louis, Mo., received an academic grant from the Fulbright U.S. Student Program to conduct research in Germany under the auspices of the German Historical Museum.

Six ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ seniors received grants for teaching English as a foreign language, with five of them awarded English Teaching Assistantships from the U.S. Fulbright Student Program: Jeffrey Berry of Redondo Beach, Calif., who will teach in Germany; Jacob Kaplove of Novato, Calif., bound for Argentina; Leah Maciejewski of Tewksbury, Mass., heading for Poland; Rebecca Merten of Warwick, R.I., who will teach in the Slovak Republic; and Jessica Plate of New Fairfield, Conn., who’s bound for Vietnam.

The sixth teaching grant recipient is Dana Ellis of West Orange, N.J., who will teach in Austria supported by a Fulbright Austria teaching assistantship, which is funded by the Austrian government.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program is funded primarily by the U.S. Department of State and sends some 1,500 U.S. citizens abroad each year.

The academic grants offer an academic year of support for study and/or research in projects of the recipients’ design. The assistantships support students who both pursue their own research and work to improve local students’ English and knowledge of the United States.

Claire Lampen

Lampen, a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ history major and recipient of a Fulbright Study/Research grant, will partner with the German Historical Museum in Berlin to study photographs, maps and documents left behind by a soldier named Wilhelm Endemann at the conclusion of World War I.

Titled “Images of the Great War: A Soldier’s Photographic Memory,” the project is significant because of the perspective and depth of Endemann’s collection. “I propose to follow Endemann’s trail,” Lampen writes, and “to flesh out the documentary skeleton he laid out to reconstruct a cohesive and uniquely personal narrative of World War I.”

German soldiers were forbidden to have cameras on the battlefield, but many defied that regulation and took personal snapshots that have ended up in albums like Endemann’s, though few are as detailed as his.

At ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, Lampen recently completed an honors thesis on the indoctrination of German children under the Nazi regime. In 2011, she undertook a seven-month study-abroad experience in Berlin, completing a full course load in German at several institutions including Humboldt University. She was also an intern at the German Historical Museum, for which she did translations and research for a website.

Jeffrey Berry '12 received an English Teaching Assistantship from the U.S. Fulbright Student Program. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College.

Jeffrey Berry

Berry, a triple major in history, German and French, first experienced Germany through a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Semester Abroad program in Berlin, and spent his entire junior year studying at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. He wrote his ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ honors thesis on parallels between Freud’s psychoanalysis and the output of Viennese author and dramatist Arthur Schnitzler.

During his Fulbright year, he will divide his time between teaching English and leading a digital photography course to connect with community members.

“My photography course will display life across class and cultural lines,” Berry writes in his Fulbright proposal. “The photographic medium allows students, and myself, to capture concretely notions about what is characteristic or worthy of documentation in their daily lives and the region at large — and to discuss these issues.”

After his time as an ETA he plans to pursue graduate studies in modern European history, German studies or international relations.

Dana Ellis '12 received a Fulbright Austria teaching assistantship. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College.

Dana Ellis

Ellis, recipient of the Fulbright Austria USTA award, is a psychology major. Like Berry, Ellis was inspired to learn more about her Fulbright destination by a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Fall Semester Abroad program, in her case Vienna.

“I embarked on a journey to expand my knowledge beyond what I could learn in American college courses and to immerse myself in modern-day Austria,” she writes in her proposal.

Ellis was inspired by a German-language teacher who used readings from a free newspaper to steep his students in the Viennese milieu.

“Learning a language provides the tools to interact with native speakers, but without the cultural context, the language skill is far less useful,” she says. “Bridging the gap between people of different backgrounds and exchanging cultural perspectives, while recognizing the inescapable differences . . . is what motivates me to teach abroad.”

Jacob Kaplove '12 received an English Teaching Assistantship from the U.S. Fulbright Student Program. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College.

Jacob Kaplove

Kaplove, a psychology major, has worked closely with Lewiston’s Somali community as the program director for Refugee Volunteers, a program that promotes cross-cultural learning and exchange between ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students and refugee families; as a researcher for Project SHIFA, an in-school program designed to promote the mental health of young Somali refugees; and as a Bonner Leader, a participant in a national program that promotes student development through community work.

He was one of two ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students to receive the 2012 Heart & Soul Award from the Maine Campus Compact, recognizing outstanding contributions to the community.

Kaplove, who has done volunteer work in Central America, was attracted to Argentina in part because of the opportunity to work in a training college for teachers of English. This setting, he says, “will help to sustain my impact as my students will go on to teach future generations about the English language.”

In addition to teaching English in Argentina, Kaplove will work in a youth mentoring program and take courses in Spanish literature and public health. After Argentina, he plans to apply to medical school with the goal of practicing family medicine, which will allow him to continue working with Latino immigrants and refugee populations.

Leah Maciejewski '12 received an English Teaching Assistantship from the U.S. Fulbright Student Program. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College.

Leah Maciejewski

“My Polish heritage has never been a large part of my life,” Maciejewski writes in her Fulbright proposal. “When my great-grandparents came to America, they chose to assimilate to the culture at the expense of tradition.”

Now Maciejewski has the opportunity to rediscover her Polish heritage while indulging her passion for teaching languages. “The Fulbright will allow me to do just that while also sharing my culture and experience as an American with my Polish peers.”

Maciejewski, a double major in English and Spanish, has been an accomplished student and volunteer, working in English Language Learning classrooms in Lewiston. She’s also respected for her athletic accomplishments, having captained the varsity softball team this spring and been honored as most valuable player, as a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Scholar-Athlete and as a member of the National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-Academic Scholar Athlete Team.

After her Fulbright commitment, Maciejewski will pursue a law degree in preparation for a career in public education policy. “I seek to explore the opportunities for bilingual policies in early education and consider new models of research and practice.”

Rebecca Merten '12 received an English Teaching Assistantship from the U.S. Fulbright Student Program. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College.

Rebecca Merten

Merten, a history major, will travel to the Slovak Republic eager to continue cultivating her interest in education and to be immersed in a country foreign to her. She is “seeking to place myself in an environment that offers a level stage for cultural exchange, with everyone learning about a new culture.”

Merten brings considerable experience as an educator. While studying in Mexico, she assisted in teaching middle-school English classes. “While the teachers were trained, none were native English speakers, and I was a resource for both the students and teachers.”

In the Slovak Republic, she hopes to foster intercultural exchange through cooking and film clubs. As a student of history, she adds, “What interests me most about the Slovak Republic is how it has maintained its cultural identity while being at the crossroads of various military and cultural invasions.”

Upon her return, Merten hopes to remain involved in education and history.

Jessica Plate '12 received an English Teaching Assistantship from the U.S. Fulbright Student Program. Photograph by Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College.

Jessica Plate

A history major, Plate minored in German and education at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, and hopes to become a teacher, a goal aligned with her interest in teaching English in Vietnam.

Through her education coursework, Plate amassed nearly 400 hours of student teaching and other fieldwork during her ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ career. “Some of my experience was in an English Language Learners classroom, where I worked with Somali refugees,” she notes.

As a student of history, Plate believes that this is a definitive time for Vietnam. That nation, she writes, “is surrounded by two majorly developing nations, India and China.

“Historians and policymakers — as well as the Vietnamese themselves — all have the same important questions: Where will Vietnam, whose third-largest trading partner is the U.S., stand as its neighbors grow? How well will Vietnam be able to imitate the Chinese model and develop a capitalist economy with a socialist government? How will Vietnam maintain successful relations with the U.S.?”

Attending ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ with support from a prestigious Thomas J. Watson Memorial Scholarship, Plate spent her entire junior year abroad, dividing it between Austria and India. She feels emotionally and intellectually well-prepared for this next foray into an unfamiliar culture. “My objective is to broaden the horizons of my students, so that they too may want to become cultural ambassadors one day.”

Ana Carbatti plays Iara in Sérgio Bianchi’s 2009 film “The Tenants.”

The Global Lens series of international films returns to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College this month starting with a screening of Brazilian director Sérgio Bianchi’s 2009 film The Tenants at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 27, in Room 104 of the Olin Arts Center, 75 Russell St.

All at 7 p.m., Global Lens screenings take place at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Mondays and Wednesdays through April 2. Monday screenings take place in Olin 104, and Wednesday screenings in Olin 105.

Screenings are open to the public at no cost. The series is presented by the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Museum of Art. For more information, please contact 207-786-6158.

Winner of the Best Screenplay award at the 2010 Festival do Rio in Brazil, The Tenants depicts a working-class family whose new next-door neighbors are young criminals. Building tension with stylish sequences that blend reality and fevered imagination, Bianchi’s thriller offers a shrewd portrait of the social and psychological impacts of urban violence. It depicts a city of São Paulo beset — yet also aroused — by a permeating atmosphere of destruction.

Featuring 10 award-winning films in this series, the Global Lens project is designed to promote cross-cultural understanding through cinema. It is produced by the Global Film Initiative, a U.S. nonprofit that supports independent film from Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.

GFI awards grants to deserving filmmakers and supports the touring film series, whose other venues include Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

“Global Lens brings the world to Lewiston, giving viewers fresh perspectives on issues that confront people around the globe,” says Anthony Shostak, education curator for the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Museum of Art. “Seeing them with other members of the community, as opposed to sitting at home, provides an expanded opportunity to discuss these issues.”

Here’s the schedule for the remaining winter-spring Global Lens screenings:

• Feb. 29: Dooman River depicts intensifying tensions between illegal North Korean immigrants and rural villagers on the Chinese side of the frozen river-border through the eyes of 12-year-old Chang-ho. While Chang-ho and his community are initially sympathetic toward refugees, mounting suspicion leaves Chang-ho torn between compassion and conflict. Directed by Chinese director Zhang Lu, the intricately detailed film has won multiple awards including the Jury Prize, Paris Cinema International Film Festival. (China, 2009, 89 min.)
• March 5: Soul of Sand is a suspenseful and eccentric thriller, directed and written by New Delhi native Sidharth Srinivasan, that explores the dark intersection between Indian modernity and tradition. A powerless watchman who guards an abandoned mine reluctantly helps his landlord’s daughter and her lower-caste lover escape when she is offered to her father’s business partner as his wife. When a masked killer is dispatched to hunt the pair down, all are immersed in a visually striking world of danger, honor and hierarchy. (India, 2010, 98 min.)
• March 7: Opera Jawa blends images of contemporary Indonesia with traditional Javanese dance, music and myth to tell the tale of Seyto and Siti — a husband and wife content until the local butcher seduces Siti. This sets the stage for an epic battle in lush forests and pristine beaches, based on “The Abduction of Sita” from the Hindu epic “The Ramayana.” Directed by Indonesian Garin Nugroho. (Indonesia, 2006, 120 min.)
• March 12: Belvedere, set in a refugee camp after 15 years of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Herzegovina, paints a rich and uncommon portrait of the aftermath of war. Ruveyda is a widow who takes solace in routine: caring for her extended family and searching for the remains of her husband and son. But she is tested when her nephew is selected to participate in a reality show in a former enemy enclave. Directed by Ahmed Imamovic, the film explores themes of patience, faith, love and forgiveness. (Bosnia-Herzegovina, 2010, 90 min.)
• March 14: The Light Thief is a contemporary tale of good and evil set in a wind-swept valley in Kyrgyzstan. Director Aktan Arym Kubat plays Mr. Light, a humble, trusting and compassionate village electrician who strikes a suspicious deal with a wealthy developer. With the dream of supplying wind-generated electricity to the valley and employment to his destitute neighbors, Mr. Light embodies goodwill and decency in a corrupt and changing world. (Kyrgyzstan, 2010, 80 min.)
• March 19: Street Days uses humor and gritty realism to explore desperation, decline and moral dilemmas in modern Georgia. Checkie, a middle-aged and unemployed heroin addict, is blackmailed by corrupt policemen into introducing the son of their wealthy enemy to drugs. Making increasingly bad decisions, Checkie reunites with his wife to face his deteriorating options before a penultimate choice. Directed by Levan Koghuashvili. (Georgia, 2010, 86 min.)
• March 21: The White Meadows a blend of fable and political critique set on the shores of a salt lake, follows Rahmat, a boatman who listens to people’s sorrows and collects their tears in vials to pour into the sea. But he remains powerless against a community that, in misguided attempts to appease the gods, inflicts multiple brutalities. Director Mohammad Rasoulof’s mesmerizing and surreal film won the AsiaAfrica Special Jury Prize and the Muhr AsiaAfrica Award for Best Director at the Dubai International Film Festival. (Iran, 2009, 93 min.)
• March 26: The Invisible Eye explores surveillance, repression and insurrection during the 1980s military regime in Argentina. An assistant teacher at an elite Buenos Aires private school, the lonely and obedient María Teresa adopts the school’s totalitarian oversight policies. But she soon finds herself amidst a breakdown in structure and discipline at the school that mirrors the rebellion outside. Directed by Diego Lerman. (Argentina, 2010, 95 min.)
• April 2: A Useful Life is a universally appealing tribute to the soul of cinema, set in Uruguay and filmed in black and white. When a local cinema closes due to dwindling support, loyal employee Jorge is forced to find a new passion and navigate his world beyond the screen. Director Federico Veiroj received an award for Best Director at the Valdivia International Film Festival. (Uruguay, 2010, 63 min.)

Hirai, a native of Japan who teaches courses on “” and among others, says that the Tohoku region is historically among the country’s poorest.

“Patience, hard work and perseverance.”

Yet because of what the has endured, its people may have the stoicism to face what comes ahead, says Hirai. “Despite their poverty, or because of it, the Tohoku people have internalized the values of patience, hard work and perseverance,” she writes in an e-mail exchange with Klonoski. “These qualities will help them again.”

Despite its harsh climate, the Tohoku region, which now faces widespread nuclear contamination, depends upon agriculture.

“I feel inconsolably sad.”

“You can tell how outstanding is the quality of work of these people just by looking at the lovingly tended vegetable fields that the chocolate-colored tidal waves devoured mercilessly,” Hirai said.

“In an instant, these people lost everything that they have built and the loved ones with whom and for whom they have built all I feel inconsolably sad to think about their losses.â€�

Hirai’s family lives in and around Tokyo, and all are physically safe. “My sister, who is a pillar of strength, was audibly shaken on the phone,” Hirai tells Klonoski. “That spoke (to) the state of her psyche more eloquently than any words she uttered.”

Hirai holds an endowed professorship that honors the late 1936 ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ alumnus who was a noted journalist in Japan as editor of and news broadcaster.

Hirai too has been jarred by the quake. “On Monday…as I glanced at the heavy doors inside Pettengill Hall and thought that they were moving up and down, I realized I was affected by the TV footage until my mind could make a fool of me.”

The orchestra performs music by Beethoven and Richard Strauss at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 19, in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St. Donations to a relief fund for the coastal town of Yamamoto-cho, 24 miles south of Sendai, will be gratefully accepted.

NBC affiliate WSCH-TV interviews Hiroya Miura, conductor of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College Orchestra, prior to the March 19 concert that raised funds for the people of Yamamoto-cho, Japan.

For more information or to reserve seats, please contact 207-786-6135 or olinarts@bates.edu.

Miura was born and raised in Sendai, near the epicenter of the earthquake, and his parents currently reside in Yamamoto-cho. According to Wikipedia, the town is one of the areas hardest hit by the quake.

The orchestra will dedicate the concert to the memory of those lost in the disaster, and Miura will personally see that audience donations are delivered to the mayor of Yamamoto-cho.

• Including donations received during the March 19 concert and online, more than $8,200 had been raised for Yamamoto-cho by March 22. Donations are still most welcome.

For people unable to attend the concert, donations can made online at www.batestickets.com or mailed to:

Support for Japan
ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College, Olin Arts Center
75 Russell St.
Lewiston ME 04240

About the program

The orchestra will play Beethoven’s landmark Symphony No. 3 (“Eroica”) and Richard Strauss’ Serenade for 13 Wind Instruments, works that “are full of youthful energy from these two German composers,” Miura says.

The Beethoven symphony is a milestone in symphonic music, a work marking the transition from the formal strictures of the Classical period to the more emotional, organically unfolding style of the Romantic.

The Strauss serenade, meanwhile, is the earliest composition by this late-Romantic composer to endure in the repertoire. It’s scored for flutes, oboes, clarinets, horns, bassoons, contrabassoon or tuba, and bass.

“Eroica,” which Beethoven completed in 1803, was written as he was coming to grips with hearing problems that would culminate in total deafness.

“It was probably the first time in history that a symphony became so intensely personal and dramatic,” Miura says, “and the ‘Eroica’ was by far the longest, and perhaps the most substantial, symphonic work of its time.”

The work makes bold use of brass instruments, especially French horn, “and it’s no surprise that the ‘Eroica’ was one of the most influential works for young Strauss, whose father was an orchestral horn player.

“It’s also no coincidence that this serenade by the hand of 18-year-old Strauss is in the key of E-flat major, the key of the ‘Eroica’ and Strauss’ later work ‘A Hero’s Life,’ ” Miura says. “I hope the audience will enjoy the virtual musical dialogue between young Strauss and Beethoven in these two works.”

The orchestra concert comes days before two Miura compositions will be premiered at the JapanNYC Festival organized by Carnegie Hall, with Seiji Ozawa as artistic director, in March and April.

Miura’s “Mitate” will be performed by the Juilliard Percussion Ensemble at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall on Tuesday, March 29. Line C3, also a percussion ensemble, debuts his “Blowout” at LaGuardia Performing Arts Center on Saturday, April 2. Both concerts begin at 8 p.m. .

Vladimir Munkhanov, a teacher, historian and lawyer from Siberia, visits ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College to present the lecture Buryat Traditions and the Modern World: Siberian Lives in Post-Soviet Russia at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 16, in Room 204, Carnegie Science Hall, 44 Campus Ave.

Presented by the environmental studies program at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ with support from the Mellon Innovation Fund, the event is open to the public at no cost. For more information, please call 207-786-6289.

Munkhanov is ethnically Buryat, a Mongolian people of the Lake Baikal region of south central Siberia near Mongolia. His talk will explore the cultures of this region and how ancient place-based traditions are responding to contemporary challenges in post-Soviet Russia.

Professor of Environmental Studies Jane Costlow, who invited Munkhanov to campus, first met him when he spoke to her students at a Lake Baikal biological station during a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Fall Semester Abroad program in Russia in 2009.

“He spoke with us about the history and culture of that region,” she says, “and also about how his own life and choices reflect the challenges and possibilities of Russian life today.”

Munkhanov, she says, in a way personifies the tensions between past and present that underlie life in Russia. “The tension is about understanding yourself through the past — a past that in the Soviet era would have been repressed or heavily manipulated — and working within emerging structures to try to forge a new future.”

In his case, the tensions are both civic, because both the structures of Russian society and its self-identity remain in flux, and cultural, as Munkhanov tries to situate his Buryat culture within a modernizing Russia.

“Will young Buryat people continue to learn Buryat, for example?” Costlow says. “I think he’s pretty realistic about the reasons young people might choose to turn their face toward the city.”

The real Siberia, Costlow adds, remains unknown to many Americans. “This region is stunningly beautiful, and is deeply beloved by all Russians — a kind of iconic spiritual landscape, vast and in many ways untouched.” Lake Baikal, the deepest and oldest lake on Earth, holds more fresh water than all the Great Lakes combined, and remains relatively unharmed by human activity.

“There’s a rich mix of cultures in this part of Russia,” Costlow says — Mongolian, Buryat and other native peoples in addition to Russian — and a corresponding mix of spiritual beliefs.

“I want anyone who is interested to know more about this part of the world. And to realize that Russia is a country whose people are working in a variety of ways to both confront contemporary challenges and stay faithful to traditions that were violently interrupted in the Soviet era.”