July 28, 2025
Brazilian teachers learning English at SIU to host film, discussion July 30
CARBONDALE, Ill. — Brazilian students who are enrolled this summer in Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s Center for English as a Second Language (CESL) will provide insight into their country during a film screening and discussion on Wednesday, July 30, at The Varsity Center in Carbondale.
The free, public screening of the 2019 Brazilian film “Bacurau” begins at 7 p.m. in The Varsity Center, 418 S. Illinois Ave. Doors open at 6 p.m. The film has been met with “widespread critical acclaim,” said Geoffrey Young, an assistant lecturer in CESL. Students will participate in Q&A with the audience after the film and discuss the cultural perspectives presented and the film’s depiction of the student’s home state of Pernambuco, Young said.
The film is intended for adult audiences only, since it contains some nudity and violence along with intense scenes. The film, which is in English and Portuguese with English subtitles, received a jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival and was an official selection at the New York Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival.
The 10 Brazilian students studying at CESL this month are teachers in their home country; they arrived in the U.S. on July 5 and will return on Aug. 2. This is the second summer in which CESL has worked with Recife no Mundo, an organization dedicated to improving English language education in the Brazilian city of Recife, Young said.
This screening is the last in a series of three films selected by students in Young's class who are from El Salvador, Japan and Brazil. Each group was asked to create a short introduction video with an overview of the film they selected, along with some aspects that the audience should pay attention to while watching, Young said. The video and Q&A session after the film serve as speaking assessments for the course.
“My primary aim with this project is to facilitate cultural exchange for our students and members of the community,” Young said. “The students are here experiencing U.S. culture, so I wanted them to also have opportunities to share their cultures with residents of Southern Illinois.”
Young added that the students were “eager” to share the film as part of the course. He hopes the film and discussion will be informative, and Young looks forward to a “meaningful and memorable experience for both our students and community members.”
“They collectively decided that it would be a film that would have a lasting impact on the audience,” Young said. “They also wanted their chosen film to represent their region: Although the town referred to in the title is a fictional location, the events in the movie take place in Pernambuco, the state in which Recife is located.”
The event’s sponsor is Southern Illinois Culture and Arts in Bilingual Education (SI CABE).