UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Sustainability Institute at Penn State is hosting the third and fourth films in its "Limits of the Imagination" film series on Tuesday, Dec. 3, at the HUB, and Wednesday, Dec. 4, at Foxdale Village in State College. Both film screening events are free and open to the public.
"Sleep Dealer," a 2008 science fiction film, will be shown at 7 p.m. on Tuesday at the HUB Flex Theatre. In this Sundance-Award winning film, filmmaker Alex Rivera anticipates how technologies similar to social media could evolve alongside existing national conversations about immigration, workers’ rights and natural resource privatization, and imagines a future in which all U.S. borders are closed to immigration yet foreign workers continue to perform labor remotely via robotic connections.
The next evening a documentary film, "Walking the Camino: Six Ways to Santiago," will be shown at 7 p.m. at the Foxdale Village Auditorium. Every year over 200,000 people of all ages, nationalities, and backgrounds share a deeply spiritual and emotional journey to the city of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. In this film, filmmaker Lydia B. Smith chronicles the pilgrimages of six people from all over the world, each with different reasons for walking the Camino — from bonding with friends to finding new directions in life to overcoming addiction.
The film series will host four more films in the spring semester that aim to help viewers confront the challenges and complexities of global issues, like climate change, social inequality and poverty. Along with the overarching narrative of the series, the films touch on concepts related to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 17 objectives agreed upon by over 190 nations to create a sustainable future for the planet. The SDGs cover everything from human sustainability — zero hunger, ensuring quality education for all; to economic sustainability — providing good paying, safe jobs and industrial innovation; to environmental sustainability — ensuring clean water and addressing climate change. The Sustainability Institute uses the SDGs to inform its sustainability efforts, acknowledging that a sustainable future must address all these issues simultaneously.
For more information about the films, visit https://sites.psu.edu/intersectionsfilm/.