According to the 8th annual Middle East Film Festival's website, the aim of the festival is to dissect the roots of occupation, illuminating the humanity of people who refuse to be defined by the conditions under which they live. Lofty goals for a local festival that lasts a little longer than a week, right? Then again, maybe not.

Olga Rocheeva expresses the aims in simpler terms.

"I hope the films act as a catalyst to get people interested in the human rights struggle in the Middle East," Rocheeva explains.

Rocheeva is the co-coordinator of the Mideast Solidarity Project, an Evergreen State College student group that has helped organize the annual film festival since its inception in 2004. This year's festival, running from Feb. 15-23, will feature 30 films. The films range in length from short documentaries to feature-length productions. They will be shown at The Evergreen State College, The Evergreen State College Tacoma campus Traditions Café and the Capitol Theater in downtown Olympia. The festival will also feature 10 or 11 different speakers. Most films and speakers are free to attend. The film festival is co-sponsored by Olympia BDS, a group that advocates for "a non-violent, civil movement of boycott, divestment and sanctions of Israel," the Rachel Corrie Foundation, Olympia Film Society and other Olympia organizations.

Rocheeva says she trusts the film festival can illuminate the humanity of the people living in the Middle East because that's what the festival did for her. In 2007, Rocheeva attended the festival as a student not particularly interested in the various human rights issues surrounding the Middle East. Over the span of a couple days she watched films paint vivid depictions of a people and culture she knew little about. A people so far removed and different from her she had thought little about them.  

"By illuminating the humanity (of the Middle East), you disable the mechanism of otherness." Rocheeva says. "If you don't know a people as a people then there's a continuation of violence towards them."

Each year, a number of the films attempt to dissect the complex issues facing Israel and Palestine. Rocheeva says the humanity present in so many of the 2007 films was what sparked her interest in this hotly debated topic, eventually leading her to join the Mideast Solidarity Project at Evergreen. The festival helped her draw closer to others calling for a change in Israeli-Palestinian relations. She hopes this year's films and speakers - many of who have lived and worked in Gaza and the West Bank - will do the same for a fresh batch of students and festival-goers.  

Though many of this year's films will dive into Israel and Palestine relations, that is by no means the only topic. A variety of films discussing all sorts of issues will be shown. Lucas Claussen, an Evergreen graduate who helped start the film festival in the 2003-2004 school year, says this year's festival surpasses the size and scope of the previous years'.

"This year will be the largest one so far," Claussen says. "There's more locations, more speakers, more films."

This year's film festival features a reception event at Capitol Theater, something Clauseen says hasn't happened in the past. The reception is scheduled for 7 p.m, Saturday Feb. 19. Claussen calls the reception the festival's "main event."  A short film chronicling the Olympia Food Co-Op's decision to boycott products from Israel called Challenging Power will debut at the reception. Detroit-based hip-hop artist Invincible will also perform.

Since the entire film festival is organized by a student group, Claussen says there are limits to how quickly the film festival can grow. Still, Claussen says he is happy with how the film festival has progressed over time. He also believes film is a great medium for achieving the goal outlined by Olga Rocheeva: getting people interested in the issues surrounding the Middle East.

"We should get this really good stuff shown," Claussen says. "Film is a really powerful way of sparking discussion and challenge people's preconceptions."

8th Annual Middle East Film Festival

Feb. 15-23, most events free and open to public
Evergreen State College - Tacoma and Olympia Campuses, Capitol Theatre, 206 Fifth Ave. SE, Olympia, Traditions Cafe, 300 Fifth Ave. SW,  Olympia
360.705.2819.
Check filmfest.mideastsolidarity.org for more details