Learning a new language is a bucket list goal for many, but can prove difficult to achieve, however, Louisiana State University student Brynali Marshall unlocked a fun way to make it a bit easier: watching films.

The solution came after members of the Arabic club on campus wanted to practice their Arabic in a creative way and learn more about non-American films, thus Marshall reached out to the School of Music and Dramatic Arts and the Film program to find out how she could make Arabic club’s desires come true.

After talking with members of the film department about what she could do to gain access to films outside of America, Marshal was told that other countries host film festivals and the best way to receive them is through an online film submission platform known as ‘Film Freeway’. Marshal created the Global Language Institute, a non-profit to advertise the ‘Language-in-Motion Festival’ on Film Freeway. The Festival received over 200 submissions.

Of those submissions, 24 films were chosen to be presented at the festival on April 10-11, with one being the world premiere, ‘Cell Buddies,’ a Dutch film about a raccoon and manatee escaping from jail.

“I was so happy to get a world premiere. I feel like this is really amazing and special,” Marshal said.

The Language-in-Motion Festival is Baton Rouge’s first cultural film experience. The Festival included films from Korea, India, Sweden, Germany and Wales, just to name a few. Marshal believes that the Festival will continue even after she graduates from LSU this year as her partnership with Manship Theater remains strong.