This semester, students in FTDM associate professor Tricia Jenkins’ Film Festivals course are organizing four screening events for the Kino Monda film series, sponsored by TCU’s Center for International Services. Please join them Wednesday, September 21, 2016 at 6:30 p.m. in Sid Richardson’s Lecture Hall 4 for the first of these films: Ixcanul (2015, directed by Jayro Bustamante). Complimentary food will be provided from Dona Carmen Pupuseria, and special guests will appear. This screening is free and open to the public. 
Plot Summary: A young woman, Maria, is forced into an arranged marriage with a more economically well-off local, Ignacio. Not wanting to be in this marriage and motivated by her desire to leave the Guatemalan highlands, seventeen-year-old Maria becomes pregnant by another man, who soon after leaves her to escape to the United States. After becoming sick from snake venom, Maria and the baby’s lives are endangered and she is caught between her ancient Mayan heritage and the modernity that large cities and the United States could offer her.