Film opens students’ eyes

Students lined up on Wed. Feb. 6 at Dina’s Place to see the documentary, which Spellman organized and had sponsored by the university’s fine arts department.

Kaitlin Spellman, senior photography major from Long Island, N.Y., made it her goal to share the documentary, “Samsara” with her fellow Winthrop students.

“I just really wanted people to come and experience the film and be impacted by it individually, because that’s what I feel like the film was created for. To kind of give you a window into different parts of the earth,” said Spellman.

Samsara is a Tibetan word that defines the continuous cycle of birth, life, death and rebirth and is a dogmatic pillar in many world belief systems like Buddhism, Taoism and Hinduism.

Filmed entirely in 70 mm film over the course of five years in 25 countries and five continents, the 2011 film “Samsara” takes filmgoers on a visual journey around the world.

Images of Buddhist monks creating sand art at the Thiksey Monastery in India, the 1,000 Hands Dance in Beijing and the surreal landscapes of the Namibia-Naukluft National Park in Namibia are the images which appear the most throughout the course of the documentary.

Spellman says that this is the first of a series of movie screenings for students from the fine arts department and that interested students should check the events calendar for any future screenings.