Join the Arabic Club for biweekly meetings in the Global Hub during Fall 2025 semester, and to practice Arabic language, structured by varying geographic dialects and level of speaker proficiency!

Join staff and students as they share about opportunities to embark on global experiences! After the presentations, we will break out into smaller groups to discuss specific programs and experiences available for SHRS students.

Join the French Club on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 6-7 pm during Fall semester for conversational meetings and to practice French speaking and listening skills and create a francophone community on campus!

UPDATE: On September 10 (only), the French Club and the French Department will have a joint event in the Global Hub, from 5:30 to 7 pm.

The French Club will meet twice weekly, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, during Fall 2025, EXCEPT on November 25 and November 26.

Join the Spanish Club for a conversation table as they welcome everyone back to school and talk about goals for the new school year!

Are you interested in studying abroad in Scandinavia? Stop by 810 William Pitt Union between 11am-2pm to speak with a representative about DIS programs in Copenhagen and Stockholm!

Mangia con noi! Bring your lunch and chat with us! Pitt students only, all levels welcome!

Tavola Italiana will meet on Thursdays during Fall 2025, EXCEPT on November 27.

Join us as we revisit the top Eurovision contestants of the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest.

We will review the top 10 songs/videos from across Europe, and you will have the chance to cast your vote.
Our MC for this event will be hosted by Miss Georgia Bea Cummings, 2024 Gay East Coast Beauty Icon.

Please come and celebrate!

Light refreshments will be provided.

The Center for African Studies, the African Graduate Student Union, and the African Students Organization invite new and continuing African students at Pitt to join us for a Welcome Dinner!

Join us in the Global Hub for to meet other students and to practice Portuguese of all levels!

Bate-Papo meet on Mondays, during Fall 2025, starting September 8 and ending December 15, EXCEPT on November 24.

The collapse of the USSR and the cultural revolution called "Perestroika" were reflected in numerous contemporaneous films, books and surprisingly even in video games. Games were just entering the mainstream, invisible to censorship and inaccessible to most of the public, and nevertheless multiple games trying to represent the historical moment appeared in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This talk looks at three video games made in different parts of the Soviet Union during the Perestroika as relics testifying to the confusion, anxiety and optimism of the Post-Soviet 1990s.

Join German Club at Pitt weekly meetings to improve language skills and cultural knowledge of German speaking regions!

German Club will meet in the Global Hub every Monday during Fall 2025 semester, starting September 8 and ending December 1, EXCEPT on November 24.

Join the first meeting of the Persian Table to introduce the new incoming Persians to one another!

European Studies Center Brown Bag Lunch and Learn Series

This “lunch and learn” session will present the preliminary results of Dr. von Dirke research for her upcoming book titled "East Asian Diaspora in Germany Today."
Dr. von Dirke will discuss how images of minoritized populations shape perception in today’s highly differentiated media societies. Her research aims to map the circulation of Asian clichés and stereotypes in public discourse. These stereotypes, clichés and tropes are, of course, rooted in the German colonialist project. She uses the 1970s ABC television series, Kung Fu, to analyze how these colonialist images are refracted through US-American popular media, such as television shows, in the case of West Germany since 1945.

Bio:
Sabine von Dirke is Associate Professor in the German Department at Pitt and focuses on the political and cultural developments of Germany since 1945 within a European context. Previous scholarship analyzed sub- and counter-cultural developments in (West) Germany (1960s student movement 1960s, politically motivated violence of the Red Army Faction; the politics of popular culture (Neue Deutsche Welle, German Hip Hop, Pop Literature of the 1990s). Her current research explores the politics of representation with respect to Germans of Color, mostly Asian Germans, within Germany’s public television and digital media landscape, with a focus on the 2nd generation’s self-articulation. A second project explores the ideological labor televisual entertainment formats perform in maintaining the political and economic status quo.

Are you interested in learning more about our new semester-long Panther Program in Cyprus? Come by 810 William Pitt Union, speak with program faculty and staff, and ask all your questions!

Join the French Club on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 6-7 pm during Fall semester for conversational meetings and to practice French speaking and listening skills and create a francophone community on campus!

UPDATE: On September 10 (only), the French Club and the French Department will have a joint event in the Global Hub, from 5:30 to 7 pm.

The French Club will meet twice weekly, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, during Fall 2025, EXCEPT on November 25 and November 26.

Learn about Ukrainian opportunities here at Pitt -- Language, Culture, Advocacy, Community, and More!

Attention: Undergraduate students! Are you looking to gain experience that will help prepare you for a globally-connected job market? Stop by Drop-In Hours to learn more about getting the Global Distinction added to your academic transcript, receiving special recognition at graduation, and standing out to prospective employers!

Stop by 810 William Pitt Union between 1pm and 4pm to speak with Arcadia Abroad and CEA CAPA representatives about their global programs and opportunities!

Join the French Club on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 6-7 pm during Fall semester for conversational meetings and to practice French speaking and listening skills and create a francophone community on campus!

UPDATE: On September 10 (only), the French Club and the French Department will have a joint event in the Global Hub, from 5:30 to 7 pm.

The French Club will meet twice weekly, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, during Fall 2025, EXCEPT on November 25 and November 26.

Join the Arabic Club for biweekly meetings in the Global Hub during Fall 2025 semester, and to practice Arabic language, structured by varying geographic dialects and level of speaker proficiency!

Mangia con noi! Bring your lunch and chat with us! Pitt students only, all levels welcome!

Tavola Italiana will meet on Thursdays during Fall 2025, EXCEPT on November 27.

Join the Global Studies Center for our annual welcome reception! Meet current and new students, faculty and staff and learn about GSC initiatives while enjoying conversation and refreshments.

Pitt students: Join Kya Baat Hai, a Hindi-Urdu conversational club that practices language and celebrates South Asian culture, for weekly conversation hours!

Kya Baat Hai will meet weekly, on Thursdays, during the Fall semester, EXCEPT on Thursday, November 27.

Are you interesting in studying abroad, but have not traveled before? Come by 810 William Pitt Union at 1:00pm to talk about traveling logistics, what first-time travelers can expect, ask questions, and more!

Want to learn more about studying or interning abroad with CIEE or IFSA? Come speak with representatives from the organizations between 10am-12pm and 1pm-3pm and ask all your questions!

Join us for a panel discussion to hear how experiential learning can help prepare you for a rapidly evolving workforce and equip you with critical skillsets to be an engaged global citizen ready to make a positive impact in the local community. Hear from professionals with a wealth of experience in career development, service learning, and global engagement, as well as from Pitt students themselves who have navigated these transformative experiences and are excited to share their stories with you, too. A networking opportunity will follow the panel discussion. Light refreshments will be served.

This event is part of the UCIS International Career Toolkit Series, and Pitt undergraduate students can earn Global Distinction credit for attending.

Panelists:
- Brandon Blache-Cohen, Executive Director of AllPeopleBeHappy (formerly Amizade)
- Katie Boyes, Undergraduate student, B.A. in Environmental Studies, Minor in Secondary Education, certificates in Global Studies & African Studies
- Rianne Elsadig, Masters student, MID in International Development, Social Policy concentration, certificates in Global Studies & African Studies
- Marie Newkirk, Assistant Director for Experiential Learning, Pitt Career Center
- Rachel Vandevort, Program Manager, Pitt Global Experiences Office

Moderator:
- Molly McSweeney, Assistant Director for Student and Community Engagement, Global Hub, University Center for International Studies

Co-Sponsors:
- University Center for International Studies
- Pitt Global Hub
- Pitt Global Experiences
- Pitt Career Center
- AllPeopleBeHappy
- David C. Frederick Honors College
- Office of PittServes
- Office of Engagement and Community Affairs

Join us in the Global Hub for to meet other students and to practice Portuguese of all levels!

Bate-Papo meet on Mondays, during Fall 2025, starting September 8 and ending December 15, EXCEPT on November 24.

Join German Club at Pitt weekly meetings to improve language skills and cultural knowledge of German speaking regions!

German Club will meet in the Global Hub every Monday during Fall 2025 semester, starting September 8 and ending December 1, EXCEPT on November 24.

Are you interested in learning more about Dietrich to Berlin: History, Politics, Memory? Come by 810 William Pitt Union and speak with the faculty leader about this Spring 2026 Panther Program!

Attention: Undergraduate students! Are you looking to gain experience that will help prepare you for a globally-connected job market? Stop by Drop-In Hours to learn more about getting the Global Distinction added to your academic transcript, receiving special recognition at graduation, and standing out to prospective employers!

Tuesdays, 4-5pm
Braun Room (12th Floor), Cathedral of Learning

Come to chat, practice, meet others who are interested in Hungarian and Hungary! For more info, contact Dr. Viktoria Batista, vib21@pitt.edu

Join the French Club on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 6-7 pm during Fall semester for conversational meetings and to practice French speaking and listening skills and create a francophone community on campus!

UPDATE: On September 10 (only), the French Club and the French Department will have a joint event in the Global Hub, from 5:30 to 7 pm.

The French Club will meet twice weekly, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, during Fall 2025, EXCEPT on November 25 and November 26.

Are you interested in global experiences through WorldStrides? Come speak to a representative in 810 William Pitt Union to speak about WorldStrides' global programs and ask your questions!

The Global Appalachia Reading Group examines the complex intersections of regional identity, global influence, and environmental justice as they pertain to Appalachia and its connections to the wider world. The Fall 2026 theme is "Place."

Session 1 Book, September 17, 2025: Appalachia in Regional Context: Place Matters, edited by Dwight B. Billings and Ann E. Kingsolver
Session 2 Book, October 22, 2025: Affrilachia by Frank X. Walker
Session 3 Book, November 19, 2025: Making Our Future: Visionary Folklore and Everyday Culture in Appalachia  by Emily Hilliard

Copies of the books will be available for those planning to attend the event. Please stop by the Global Studies Center (4100 Posvar Hall) to pick up your copy. If you need the books shipped, that can be arranged.

Note: We are able to fund and distribute books to registrants as funding allows. Registration will remain open after this amount is reached. Registrants will be notified if we are unable to provide them with the reading material.

Join the French Club on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 6-7 pm during Fall semester for conversational meetings and to practice French speaking and listening skills and create a francophone community on campus!

UPDATE: On September 10 (only), the French Club and the French Department will have a joint event in the Global Hub, from 5:30 to 7 pm.

The French Club will meet twice weekly, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, during Fall 2025, EXCEPT on November 25 and November 26.

As part of the "German Pop and Pittsburgh N'at: Cool Culture, Crass Cultivation and Cosmopolitan Connections"

Documentary, 96 min, Germany 2022
Directed by Cem Kaya

LOVE, DEUTSCHMARKS AND DEATH tells the story of the independent and largely unknown music of immigrants from Turkey and their children and grandchildren in Germany in a very lively way, full of rhythm. In the form of a documentary essay, director Cem Kaya takes his viewers into a dazzling universe of musical diversity. In a cinematic experience of the highest sound quality, he brings the energy and spirit of those years to life.

Join the Turkish Language Table in the Global Hub to learn about Turkish language, culture, and community.

There will be four meetings in the Global Hub during Fall semester, each from 8-9 pm:
- September 17
- October 1 - Board Game Night!
- October 15
- November 12

The Celebrate Africa Festival brings students, faculty, and staff together with the vibrant African diaspora community in Pittsburgh. There is food, song & dance, artisans, children's activities, and more! It is a wonderful opportunity to engage with the diversity of Africa and the Pittsburgh community, as well as network with local African organizations and businesses.

Want to learn more about global opportunities with AIFS and/or IES? Come speak with representatives from both organizations in 810 William Pitt Union about their study and internship abroad programs!

Vito Ruggiero is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellow at Ca' Foscari University in Venice. He is currently working on a European Commission-funded project entitled: "Drug Trafficking and Politics: Structuring and Adaptation of Organized Crime in Bolivia's Last Authoritarian Decade (1971–1982). He is the author of the book The Anti-Communist Dream: Italian Neo-Fascists in Latin America (Roma Tre University Press, 2023).

Mangia con noi! Bring your lunch and chat with us! Pitt students only, all levels welcome!

Tavola Italiana will meet on Thursdays during Fall 2025, EXCEPT on November 27.

Pitt students: Join Kya Baat Hai, a Hindi-Urdu conversational club that practices language and celebrates South Asian culture, for weekly conversation hours!

Kya Baat Hai will meet weekly, on Thursdays, during the Fall semester, EXCEPT on Thursday, November 27.

The University of Pittsburgh’s Continental Connection: Africa and the African Diaspora Research Conference and Celebration will be a dynamic gathering that brings together faculty and students from across the University—including the Department of Africana Studies, Center for African Studies, Center for Ethnic Studies, Center on Race and Social Problems, Center for Health Equity, Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, and the School of Social Work.

Experience the power of connection as faculty and students share their research through captivating presentations and hands-on interactive poster sessions on September 18.

This conference creates a vibrant space where scholarship transcends geographical boundaries, sparking meaningful collaborations and amplifying the vital voices and contributions of African and diaspora communities worldwide.

Planned events will continue on September 19-20 with the Celebrate Africa & African Diaspora Festival hosted by the Center for African Studies.

Join us for an African fashion show to kick off our Celebrate Africa Festival!

The Greek Nationality Room is launching the new program period with a lecture series that will feature and explore women archetypes in Greek Tragedy, from ancient to modern times:

pahellenicfoundation.org/Tragedy

The first two lectures/presentations, scheduled for September 20 and 27, both at 7 PM explore enduring female archetypes in ancient Greek tragedy (September 20) and Byzantine culture (September 27). These presentations will offer insights into how archetypal patterns of female behavior have evolved and continue to evolve and influence modern identity, thought, and action.

The explorations will:

- interpret archetypal female behavior through literary and historic women.
- highlight the timeless power of archetypes that continue to shape contemporary consciousness.
- create a clear link between past and present, fostering reflection on personal and societal levels.

On the day following each presentation (September 21 and 28, respectively), participants will have an opportunity to ask questions and engage in live discussion with the presenter.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER, GIOVANNA LIVERI:
Giovanna Liveri is a philologist and educator with extensive experience in teaching Ancient and Modern Greek language and literature, both as a native and a foreign language. Founder of the website “Language and Culture Dialogues” and the educational platform “e-Dialogos”. She organizes interactive cultural workshops and seminars for Greek and international audiences and designs speaking and cultural courses through literature and culture for Greeks in the diaspora. She specializes in innovative, experiential teaching methods, combining traditional philological knowledge with modern educational approaches. She has taught in private schools, educational centers, and IB programs, with a focus on Greek language and literature studies.
Although the presentations will be open to everyone, to participate in the live discussion and Q&A period, we kindly ask those interested to register. Details are inside the program website:
pahellenicfoundation.org/Tragedy
We look forward to these presentations as well as other events in motion for this fall season.

American-educated, comparative literature professor Ali feels that he has shed his familial baggage, and with it, his father’s patriarchal, draconian sensibilities. Ali’s long-simmering resentment, however, resurfaces as he becomes aware that his mother’s untimely death may not have been natural. 

When a mysterious drifter Riza turns up at his rural cabin looking for work, Ali thinks that Riza may be able to solve several problems. As the revenge scheme spins out of control, Ali’s generational trauma threatens to overturn everything he’s worked for. Part David Lynch, part Turkish realism, The Things You Kill explores how the power of the patriarchy is built on an unreal scaffolding, one that crumbles as soon as any pressure is exerted.

Winner, Sundance 2025 World Cinema Award

In Blue Sun Palace’s Chinese-speaking Queens, Cheung is a migrant laborer and Didi works at a massage parlor with other Chinese immigrants. Among them is Amy (Ke-Xi Wu), a gifted cook who dreams of opening her own restaurant. When Didi is tragically killed, Cheung and Amy form an unexpected bond as they navigate their grief and search for connection. Blue Sun Palace offers a quiet, realistic portrayal of immigrant life in New York, where English is rarely spoken and interactions with non-immigrant Americans are largely commodified. While there are daily indignities foisted upon the immigrants, Blue Sun Palace is no misery showcase. Intimacy and warmth co-exist with economic anxieties and deep grief that are articulated with uncommon intelligence and understanding of how adults endure any given day. Director Constance Tsang gives us confident direction in her debut feature, bringing a fresh exploration to how American newcomers might find comfort and solace in one another in an otherwise alienating land.

Join us in the Global Hub for to meet other students and to practice Portuguese of all levels!

Bate-Papo meet on Mondays, during Fall 2025, starting September 8 and ending December 15, EXCEPT on November 24.

Join German Club at Pitt weekly meetings to improve language skills and cultural knowledge of German speaking regions!

German Club will meet in the Global Hub every Monday during Fall 2025 semester, starting September 8 and ending December 1, EXCEPT on November 24.

The 2025 Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner, a love story set in a traditional Maharashtrian village, follows Anand, a city dweller who, during a 10-day mourning period for his father, rekindles a tender bond with his childhood friend. At the beginning of Cactus Pears, protagonist Anand has to leave his urban world to mourn his beloved father in his ancestral home, where he is inundated with memories and his relations question his marital status. Anand finds himself drawn to his childhood friend Balya, as their personal and emotional struggles bring them closer during Anand’s 10-day mourning period. Cactus Pears is a refreshingly intimate film that explores queer life in rural India in a new way. Far from imagining the region as inherently hostile to queerness, the film explores the deep complexities around family obligation, loss, and desire. By casting local actors and filming in his ancestral village, Cactus Pears becomes a semi-autobiographical portrait of love and hope found. even in the most unusual of places.

Winner, Sundance Grand Jury Prize 2025

Drop by 810 William Pitt Union anytime between 12pm and 3pm to speak with a representative from SFS (School for Field Studies) about their programming, studying abroad, and more!

European Studies Center Brown Bag Lunch and Learn Series

In 2022, the Meloni government renewed plans to connect Sicily and the Italian mainland— plans that had lain dormant for more than a decade—and build the largest single-span suspension bridge in the world. What does this most recent chapter of the bridge’s story tell us about Sicily’s place in the Italian nation, in Europe, and in frameworks of integration
and security? And how do the politics of this moment resonate with earlier plans to bind this notoriously “seismic” island to more “stable” ground?

Bio:
Dr. Lina Insana
Associate Prof of Italian
Director of Italian Graduate Studies
Italian Program Coordinator

Lina Insana’s research and teaching focuses on modern and contemporary Italian cultural production. Most of her work on Italian writer and Holocaust survivor Primo Levi is concerned with textual mediation, translation, and adaptation; newer research—on Sicilian cultural belonging and manifestations of italianità in the American interwar period (1919-1939)—seeks to interrogate formations of transnational identity at the margins of conventionally accepted definitions of Italianness.

Tuesdays, 4-5pm
Braun Room (12th Floor), Cathedral of Learning

Come to chat, practice, meet others who are interested in Hungarian and Hungary! For more info, contact Dr. Viktoria Batista, vib21@pitt.edu

Join the French Club on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 6-7 pm during Fall semester for conversational meetings and to practice French speaking and listening skills and create a francophone community on campus!

UPDATE: On September 10 (only), the French Club and the French Department will have a joint event in the Global Hub, from 5:30 to 7 pm.

The French Club will meet twice weekly, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, during Fall 2025, EXCEPT on November 25 and November 26.

In the feature film debut of director Kondo Ryota, winner of the Grand Prize at the Japan Horror Film Competition, and produced by legendary J-Horror director, Shimizu Takashi, this film’s quiet horror allows viewers to experience slow-burning dread trapped in the coarse image of a VHS tape. One day, Keita unexpectedly receives an old videotape from his mother. As the tape plays, the grainy images reveal the moment of his brother’s mysterious disappearance years earlier forcing Keita to reckon with a past he has long tried to forget. As unforgettable and ghastly as this revelation might be, Keita decides to confront the incident once more and retrace the past, heading to the ruins of a mountain that should never have existed.

Attention: Undergraduate students! Are you looking to gain experience that will help prepare you for a globally-connected job market? Stop by Drop-In Hours to learn more about getting the Global Distinction added to your academic transcript, receiving special recognition at graduation, and standing out to prospective employers!

Please join the staff of the Andy Warhol Museum, as they provide an overview of Warhol's blotted line technique. Registration is required due to limited space.

Join the French Club on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 6-7 pm during Fall semester for conversational meetings and to practice French speaking and listening skills and create a francophone community on campus!

UPDATE: On September 10 (only), the French Club and the French Department will have a joint event in the Global Hub, from 5:30 to 7 pm.

The French Club will meet twice weekly, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, during Fall 2025, EXCEPT on November 25 and November 26.

In conservative Malaysia, the mere existence of a baby hatch—in which one can safely abandon newborns– remains a whispered taboo, condemned by the rising tide of social conservatism that brands it as an enabler of moral decay. Lai Sum, Fatimah, Kam, and Nurul, committed employees of a Kuala Lumpur baby hatch, navigate a maze of societal opposition to empower women from diverse backgrounds grappling with the complex notion of bodily autonomy. As Ramadan ends, a dire situation unfolds when Siew Man, an underage girl, teeters on the brink of a life-altering decision. Lai Sum endeavors to rescue her from the depths of despair. However, her well-intentioned intervention unwittingly entangles them both in the perilous currents of theocratic and patriarchal forces, threatening to dictate their fates.

Nominee, Tokyo International Film Festival best film 2024

In a village in a remote valley on the northern border of Xinjiang, China, a lonely Kazakh boy named Arsin nurses fading memories of his family. He finds solace in the company of plants. The arrival of Meiyu, a Han Chinese girl, is like the discovery of a plant he has never seen before, bringing him comfort and a strange sense of wonder. Together, they grow like two distinct species, rooted in a shared corner of the world, imagining the valley as an endless ocean. But one day, Arsin learns that Meiyu will be moving to Shanghai, which is 4,792 kilometres away – a distance he struggles to comprehend. She is headed to a city where the ocean actually exists. Arsin is left alone to grapple with the quiet shifts in their small, fragile world.

2025 Berlin Grand Prix of the Generation Kplus Winner, Best Film

Two Shows: Friday, Sept 26 at 1:00 PM (Univ. of Pitt, G24) and Wednesday, Sept 24 at 7PM (Mt. Lebanon Library)

Join the Arabic Club for biweekly meetings in the Global Hub during Fall 2025 semester, and to practice Arabic language, structured by varying geographic dialects and level of speaker proficiency!

The Daydreams Database of pre-Soviet cinema (https://daydreams.museum/en/) is the first scholarly database of feature films produced in the Russian Empire and shot in its former territories in the first years after the October Revolution. Daydreams contains the most complete filmographies, synopses, and iconographic materials (such as promotional stills, posters, and frame enlargements) for more than 2,500 films with over 6,500 images and more than 200 film librettos.

Mangia con noi! Bring your lunch and chat with us! Pitt students only, all levels welcome!

Tavola Italiana will meet on Thursdays during Fall 2025, EXCEPT on November 27.

Practice Hindi and play games with the Less-Commonly-Taught-Languages Center and students! No knowledge of Hindi required.

There will be three meetings in the Global Hub during Fall semester, each from 6-7 pm:
- September 25
- October 23
- November 20

This professional development workshop series is designed for K-12 educators seeking to deepen their understanding of global issues through literature. This year, we will explore the theme of “The U.S. in the World.” Through global and regional perspectives, we will discuss narratives of a “Global United States,” where the U.S. role in the world and its relationship with other countries and regions is informed by transnational narratives and dialogues shaped by global trends such as migration, environmental issues, human rights, and human conditions. By exploring compelling stories from diverse cultural perspectives, educators will gain insights into the complexities of this theme, its impact on individuals and communities, and how to engage students in meaningful discussions around these topics.

Each session features a carefully selected book, paired with historically contextualized presentations, interactive discussions, teaching strategies, and cross-disciplinary activities to inspire classroom implementation.

Sessions this year will take place virtually on Thursday evenings from 6:00-7:30 p.m. (ET). Three Act 48 credit hours (for PA educators) and a copy of the book are provided for each session.

The September 25, 2025 workshop will focus on the book, "Lark Ascending," by Silas House.

For more information and to register, please go to: https://www.ucis.pitt.edu/global/GILS .

Pitt students: Join Kya Baat Hai, a Hindi-Urdu conversational club that practices language and celebrates South Asian culture, for weekly conversation hours!

Kya Baat Hai will meet weekly, on Thursdays, during the Fall semester, EXCEPT on Thursday, November 27.

In Sokcho, a small seaside village in South Korea, a young woman, Soo-Ha, lives in a bit of a rut, rhythmed by visits to her mother, a fishmonger, and her relationship with her boyfriend, Jun-Ho. When a French man named Yan Kerrand arrives in the boarding house where Soo-Ha works, it awakens within her questions about her own identity, and that of her French father, of whom she knows almost nothing. As winter settles over the town, Soo-Ha and Kerrand will observe and gauge each other, trying to communicate any way they can – through cooking for one and drawing for the other – delicately weaving a fragile bond between them.

Hiro and his wife Sono run an okonomiyaki restaurant which employs ex-youth offenders to help support their rehabilitation. Since an incident with a former employee a year ago, Hiro has been hounded by hate speech online. Nevertheless, he sticks to his principles at the restaurant. When he interviews the 18-year-old Yuto in the detention center, the young man tells him: “I want the chance to start over!”, and Hiro hires him. After receiving his first pay packet, Yuto returns to his hometown to buy his father a gift but discovers that he has left town. Yuto’s mother already abandoned him when he was a child and now his father is gone, too. While out at a club, Yuto becomes fascinated with Yukiha, a 17-year-old dancer at the club who was also recently released from juvenile detention.

Berlin Film Festival Panorama 2025

In a village in a remote valley on the northern border of Xinjiang, China, a lonely Kazakh boy named Arsin nurses fading memories of his family. He finds solace in the company of plants. The arrival of Meiyu, a Han Chinese girl, is like the discovery of a plant he has never seen before, bringing him comfort and a strange sense of wonder. Together, they grow like two distinct species, rooted in a shared corner of the world, imagining the valley as an endless ocean. But one day, Arsin learns that Meiyu will be moving to Shanghai, which is 4,792 kilometres away – a distance he struggles to comprehend. She is headed to a city where the ocean actually exists. Arsin is left alone to grapple with the quiet shifts in their small, fragile world.

2025 Berlin Grand Prix of the Generation Kplus Winner, Best Film

Two Shows: Friday, Sept 26 at 1:00 PM (Univ. of Pitt, G24) and Wednesday, Sept 24 at 7PM (Mt. Lebanon Library)

Are you part of the LGBTQ+ community? Are you interested in studying abroad? Come by 810 William Pitt Union for a presentation and discussion with staff members and students about safe practices and expectations for LGBTQ+ students studying abroad. Bring all of your questions!

After World War II, the USSR's leaders relied heavily on construction materials mined and produced in recently liberated territories to rebuild the country's ruined cities. This paper traces the material networks linking Soviet cities to forests, quarries, and factories supplying the wood, marble, brick, and cement integral to Soviet rebuilding. Focusing on the Aseri Brickworks and Kunda Cement Factory, both located along Estonia's northern coast, the paper examines the interplay between Soviet occupation and materials extraction. Part of the Socialist Studies Seminar series.

At the beginning of the Cannes Film Festival Critics’ Week winner A Useful Ghost (Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, 2025), we learn that March has lost his beloved wife Nat, whose work in the family factory has left her—and many other workers—poisoned. Their relationship gets a second chance, however, when she comes back to him, reincarnated as a vacuum cleaner. His family is less pleased by her reincarnation and finds their rather unconventional love disturbing. Anxious to be the good daughter-in-law again, Nat decides to become useful by setting herself against the other ghosts who have revenge on their minds. As she becomes involved in banishing other spirits, the question of a ghost’s usefulness clashes with Thailand’s recent authoritarian history. With its tonal shifts and fractious genre changes, A Useful Ghost should not work. But the fact that it does—and does so brilliantly—is a credit to the debut film director’s sense of humor and razor-sharp political vision.  

Toronto International Film Festival 2025, Cannes Critics’ Week Grand Prize 2025

Jin Aixia (Chang) has two daughters, but Emma (Karena Lam), who grew up in New York, and Fan Zuer (Eugenie Liu), who grew up in Taipei, never knew about each other until well into adulthood. When Zuer and her partner decide to try and get pregnant via in vitro fertilization, they wind up travelling to the US for treatments. Tragically, the couple die there in an accident, but their embryo remains alive and well — and Aixia is left as its legal guardian. Arriving in New York overwhelmed with grief, she is faced with the choice to donate, terminate, or find a surrogate for the embryo. But after a life spent feeling like she’s fallen short as a mother, who is she to decide what to do with her deceased daughter’s unborn child?

2024 Toronto International Film Festival Platform Award winner, 2024 Golden Horse winner, best original screenplay

When A Better Tomorrow debuted in 1986, it spawned the Hong Kong gangster cinematic craze, propelled the careers of John Woo and Chow Yun-Fat to international stardom and made Hong Kong cool an aesthetic across the world. We are celebrating the 2025 4k of this film and the entire Golden Princess Collection at the Harris Theater.  In the original HK gangster film– A Better Tomorrow, two estranged brothers — Leslie Cheung’s fresh-faced cop Kit, and Ti lung’s jaded criminal Ho — struggle to reconnect after Ho serves three years in prison. As Ho attempts to stay out of gangster life, both are drawn into crime, violence and the Hong Kong underworld. Not only does Woo’s A Better Tomorrow set the gold standard for intense corridor shootouts but also laid the foundation for a stylistic template that would resonate throughout Woo’s illustrious career.

While living abroad, a filmmaker returns to Tripoli, Lebanon to confront a hometown that once rejected him as a queer child. With a microphone in hand, he walks around coffee shops, public squares and a park to ask the city’s inhabitants about their cultural and social beliefs and their embrace of new ideas. Gradually, he meets a group of marginalized individuals whose eccentric life choices contradict the general lifestyle in this religiously and socially conservative city. Through intimate conversations with a communist activist, a queer music producer, and other unconventional characters, Tripoli/A Tale of Three Cities explores the complicated relations one forms with a hometown in crisis. This contemplative urban symphony paints a picture of a city trapped in a self-spun web, paralyzed by a deep economic crisis, a faltering revolution, and a looming doomsday.

International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam

Co-sponsored by The Humanities Center at Carnegie Mellon University and Backyard Docs

Join us in the Global Hub for to meet other students and to practice Portuguese of all levels!

Bate-Papo meet on Mondays, during Fall 2025, starting September 8 and ending December 15, EXCEPT on November 24.

Join German Club at Pitt weekly meetings to improve language skills and cultural knowledge of German speaking regions!

German Club will meet in the Global Hub every Monday during Fall 2025 semester, starting September 8 and ending December 1, EXCEPT on November 24.

Attention: Undergraduate students! Are you looking to gain experience that will help prepare you for a globally-connected job market? Stop by Drop-In Hours to learn more about getting the Global Distinction added to your academic transcript, receiving special recognition at graduation, and standing out to prospective employers!

Tuesdays, 4-5pm
Braun Room (12th Floor), Cathedral of Learning

Come to chat, practice, meet others who are interested in Hungarian and Hungary! For more info, contact Dr. Viktoria Batista, vib21@pitt.edu

Join the French Club on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 6-7 pm during Fall semester for conversational meetings and to practice French speaking and listening skills and create a francophone community on campus!

UPDATE: On September 10 (only), the French Club and the French Department will have a joint event in the Global Hub, from 5:30 to 7 pm.

The French Club will meet twice weekly, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, during Fall 2025, EXCEPT on November 25 and November 26.