12 años en Delaware • 1996 - 2008 • 12 years in Delaware

Film Society, La Esperanza and the International Club of Del-Tech team up to present a special screening of "Innocent Voices" on Friday, May 9, at the Georgetown Owens Campus

The Rehoboth Beach Film Society is teaming up with La Esperanza and the International Club of Delaware Technical and Community College for a special screening of Innocent Voices, on Friday, May 9, at 7:00 PM. The screening will take place in the Lecture Hall on the Owens Campus of DTCC. Susan Schranck, DTCC’s Language Department Chair and Co-advisor to the International Club, says that “Innocent Voices is a great film that resonates with Sussex County’s growing immigrant population”. Mrs. Schranck screens the film for her students each semester and finds the students who have moved to Delaware from Latin American countries respond to the shared experiences of the film’s main characters. “The film illustrates some of the reasons why immigrants have chosen to escape to America,” states Mrs. Schranck.

Based on the true story of screenwriter Oscar Torres's embattled childhood, Innocent Voices is the poignant tale of Chava, an eleven-year-old boy whose father abandons the family in the middle of El Salvador’s civil war in the 1980s. The government's armed forces recruit twelve year olds, rousting them out of their classes at the local middle school, to fight the peasant rebels that often include the boys’ family members. Chava's life becomes a game of survival, not only from the bullets of the escalating war, but also from the dispiriting effects of daily violence. As he hustles to find work to help his single mother pay the bills, and experiences the pangs of first love for a beautiful classmate, Chava's tiny home village becomes both playground and battlefield. [2004, Runtime: 120 min., Rated R]

Following the screening, a discussion will be led by experts in the field of immigration law, a local immigrant from El Salvador, and a representative La Esperanza, who can explain what services are offered to the recent immigrant to Sussex County.

Tickets are $5, and may be purchased at the RBFS office, or by calling 302-645-9095, ext. 1. SEATING IS LIMITED AND ADVANCED TICKET PURCHASES ARE ENCOURAGED. Please note that ticket purchases are non-refundable.