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Student Film Teaches International Students 'Reality 101'

By Kelly Jasper, Daily News-Record

Selam Hussein, an EMU student from Ethiopia, produced a film titled "Reality 101" for international students. Behind him is equipment used for editing raw footage.
Photo By Michael A. Tripp

For four months, the video-editing lab in the back of EMU's library was Selam Hussein’s second home.

The senior communications student spent nearly 100 hours crafting video clips and sound bites into a half-hour film — one he hopes is a valuable tool for international college students settling into American culture.

A 28-year-old international student from Ethiopia, Hussein has spent the last four years in the United States.

"I don’t want people to go through what I went through," he said, describing the culture shock he first experienced. "But the shock is there and it’s real and it’s frustrating."

The film, "Reality 101," features 16 students from 16 countries discussing perceptions they held before and after studying in the United States.

Hussein’s video, which debuts Thursday night at EMU, will be shown to international students through EMU’s Conflict Transformation Program.

Hussein believes the viewings are important because they provide an outlet to address issues affecting international students, he said.

But he hopes the film’s impact doesn’t end there.

"There’s a lot of the world many people don’t know about," Hussein said. "They can see how they’re viewed by other cultures. For Americans, it’s a big eye-opener."

Culture Shock

One of Hussein’s most memorable scenes features a senior international student from Korea sharing one of her first thoughts once in the United States.

"I see all these blond people. I started crying," she says in the film. "I thought, 'Oh, wow, I’m really in a different place.'"

The scene shows how difficult it can be when a student realizes how different America is compared to home, Hussein said. "There’s not much out there to prepare you for this when most of what you think of America you learned from movies."

But making the film is one way Hussein has tried to prepare other students, he said.

"When you come here, everything is nice, and it’s like a honeymoon phase," he said. "But it doesn’t last forever, and you get frustrated.

"The food, the doorknobs and the light switches are not the same. It’s the easy things that get you."

Beyond The Classroom

Hussein was teamed with the Conflict Transformation Program to complete the film as a class project for his communications major.

The class required him to complete all aspects of the film alone — a rare characteristic in the world of professional video, said Jerry Holsopple, an EMU teacher who taught Hussein’s video, documentary and cinematography classes.

"He does everything," Holsopple said. "The video, the sound, the lighting, the concept and graphic design, and the interviews and editing. Everything."

Hussein shot nearly 15 hours of video, which cost about $250 in tapes. The Conflict Transformation Program funded the project.

Pat Spaulding, an employee of the program, likes the idea of working with students to complete projects.

"It gives the project real value when it extends beyond the classroom," she said.

Hussein was the perfect person to make the film, not only because of the extent of his talents, but because he is an international student, Spaulding said.

"He knew the people to talk to and the questions to ask because he was aware of the issues," Spaulding said.

The film is different because, unlike other films of its type, it deals with a rural area and is locally focused, Hussein said.

"It’s the real EMU and the real Harrisonburg and the real United States," he said. "It’s not the movies and the images you see. This is how students feel and its reality."

The documentary "Reality 101" will debut Thursday (June 10) at 7 p.m. in EMU’s Suter Science Center, room 109. The viewing is free and open to the public.

reprinted with permission of Daily News-Record

— posted June 10, 2004