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Dr. Riep, who studies representations of disability in literature and visual arts, discusses common misconceptions about people with autism and how many of those erroneous ideas are turned into on-screen stereotypes. He then, with praise, points to how The Reason I Jump (2020) fights against those stereotypes and tries to provide audiences with an experiential, empathy-building opportunity.

Professor of Scandinavian Studies, Dr. Julie Allen begins by explaining why the Scandinavian countries have continually topped international surveys on happiness. She then connects those reasons to the unique twisting of disaster movie conventions in the pan-Nordic film Breaking Surface (2020).

Director of BYU Global Women’s Studies, Dr. Valerie Hegstrom outlines the perceived choice women are faced with between family and career. Not only is this choice not a simple binary, but it inordinately affects women especially in China as represented in the documentary Leftover Women (2019).

IC co-director Douglas J. Weatherford examines the presence of Peruvian poet César Vallejo in Roy Andersson’s critically acclaimed film, Songs from the Second Floor (2000, Sweden). Weatherford suggests that Vallejo’s anguished poetry can be felt throughout this experimental film and that both filmmaker and poet create an “Hagiography of the Ordinary,” or a celebration of everyday people overwhelmed by the absurd nature of everyday life.

North Korea has continually baffled Americans for the duration of its existence. To help form a clearer understanding of the so-called “hermit kingdom,” Dr. Kirk Larsen gives a succinct overview of some of the myths we hear and offers a more complete picture of North Korea. After addressing these myths, viewers of Assassins (2020) can better form their own opinions based on the film’s evidence.