Now in its twenty-eighth year, the Margaret Mead Traveling Film Festival is still shocking, enlightening and engaging audiences around the world, and last week the festival was shown at UAF.

The festival screens works in the un-genre of ethnographic film, a field that defines itself by stretching its boundaries. This year, themes included black activism in the U.S., the impending prominence of biotechnology on the global food market, and guerrilla counter-advertising in Buenos Aires. Inspiring or downright daunting, here are some of the highlights.

"It showed me things I'd never seen before," said a shocked earth science major.

"Afghanistan Unveiled" was a journalistic foray into remote regions of Afghanistan. Shot by a group of Afghani women journalists, the 52-minute documentary overwhelms with story after story of violence and poverty after another, bringing the viewer directly into the lives of many men, women and children affected.

"A Panther in Africa," a crowd favorite, was a funny and thoughtful portrait of former Black Panther Pete O'Neal, who was exiled to Tanzania after weapons allegations. O'Neal and his wife devoted themselves to the upkeep of their transformational community center.

"The Future of Food" followed corporate food giants in their plan to control the world's agricultural resources.

May 1994, the film stated, was when the world's first genetically altered products went on sale in our supermarkets. The film raised questions about the methods by which our food is produced and the possible risks therein. The film goes on to unearth that the U.S. has so far refused to mandate labeling of products, in contrast with more than 30 countries in the Northern Hemisphere that do so.

"Without labeling, there's no traceability. I don't want my child being treated like a lab rat, for the corporate empire to make a quick buck," said angry mother and student Judith after the film.

The film showed how many other countries have looked into the ill health consequences, the perpetuation of global wealth disparities, and who really benefits from untested genetically modified products. The film finished by slightly evaporating the fear in the air, explaining that even though the revolution in genetically modified products has exploded, so has the counter-revolution in favor of local and organic food.

The wonderful finale warmed many a heart Saturday night. It followed civil rights activist and resolute artist Oscar Brahmin and his son driving a taxi 12 hours a day through the crowded Buenos Aires streets. Along the way Oscar feels he is constantly invaded by street advertisement "pollution." Billboards like these are illegal in Alaska due to infringement on scenery. In the trunk of his car, Oscar always makes sure he has cut outs, bottles of glue and a pair of scissors. As soon as he gets a chance, he gets to work, snatching his life back from the corporate advertising empire and painting what he feels is a more original, truthful message on the poster, attracting the mass media attention.

From the moment the festival kicked off with the first sparkle and glint with a portrayal of the fascinating Margaret Mead, the anthropologist who blended knowledge and action, to the last film on tactics to change the world by taking the authority into our own hands, the festival was a blast. Students Activities Coordinator Jeff Stepp said it is significant for UAF to hold such a prestigious film event, and while merely a start, albeit an impressive one, they think it will grow. Student commentary on the films fitted the foundations of the Student Activities Office: They entertained, they inspired and they certainly educated.

The Margaret Mead Film Festival was, in a word, eclectic. It may continue to provide innovative and honest non-fiction work to UAF and communities throughout the U.S. and abroad next year with its traditional blueprint of championing film as a tool to study and learn from other cultures. What mysterious binding elements bring these unique, astonishingly incongruent films together into a cohesive, well rounded captivating whole?

"I have no idea, but it was really, really eye-opening and fun," said psychology major Sue.