After weeks of seeing flyers around campus, many students watched “The Human Experience” on Feb. 21 and Feb. 22. The film was introduced to the West Chester campus by third-year, Lori Brooks. Brooks saw the film in high school and felt like everyone should see it.
“Everyone can get something out of it,” she said. “I feel that way. My mind works in human family.”
Brooks shared her thoughts on the film before the event started and urged the audience to take action after seeing the film.
“I just want people to turn inspiration into action.”
“The Human Experience” chronicles the experiences of four young men who wanted to experience something new and unusual. They wanted to “see the world through someone else’s eyes.” The movie shows three different experiences including living homeless in New York, the Lost Children of Peru, and the lepers of Ghana.
For the first experience, two of the men, Clifford and Jeffrey Azize, lived homeless on the streets of New York City for a week.
“It was an opportunity to put ourselves in a homeless man’s shoes,” Azize said. “We tried to find hope with the city’s most hopeless.”
The second experience followed the Azizes and friends, Michael Campo and Matthew Sanchez, to Peru to a children’s home that houses the Lost Children of Peru. Many of the children have mental or physical disabilities. They are housed there because their families cannot provide proper care for them.
In Ghana, the men learned that happiness can be found in the most hopeless of places. They visited a colony of lepers and learned that the people are happy. The lepers talked about their purpose in life and how they know they have a purpose because they wake up in the morning.
During the question and answer session, Azize and Campo, discussed the inspiration behind the movie. Campo said that the movie was originally going to be a 15 minute film on the homeless but they found a group called “Surf for the Cause” that works in Peru and a group of friars helped them get to Ghana.
When asked what advice they can give, Campo said, “there’s a voice inside of us that says we can do great things. If you have the desire, go do it. Love can change the world.”
The statement echoed Brooks’ challenge to not let the desire to make a difference stop after a few days.
Azize hopes “that all young people can take this film and apply it to their lives in some way. They [should] experience life as a gift and see life in a positive light, even in the most negative situation, that life is still worth living.”
The movie shows this sentiment in the different experiences that the men have.
To learn more about “The Human Experience” and how you can make a difference by showing the film to more people, go to www.grassrootsfilms.com.
Margaret Weaver is a third-year student majoring in English. She can be reached at MW678077@wcupa.edu.