The logo for this week's foreign film festival – which began Monday and continues through Wednesday – features a quote in six languages, stating, "Language is the key to understanding."

"Language is like a key that can open a world for you," said Sarah Gendron, assistant professor of foreign languages and literatures. "It's a step toward other cultures and worlds."

The festival is sponsored by Marquette Student Government and the College of Arts & Sciences.

Gendron, the spearheader of the event, hoped for good turnout and at the first film Monday night approximately 200 people attended, almost filling the first floor of the Weasler Auditorium.

During the first film – "Mar adentro (The sea inside)," the 2004 Oscar award-winning foreign film about a quadriplegic and his fight for euthanasia – festivalgoers ate snacks provided by Izumi's Restaurant, Elliot's Bistro, Karl Ratzsch's Restaurant and Sam's Club.

Jessica Farley, French honorary society vice president, said the process to host a film festival began last August when the different language honorary societies met.

Gendron brought up the idea of a film festival, which Farley said features the "best of the best films."

"You can't go wrong. You know it will be a good evening," said Farley, a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences, of the festival, which she called the biggest event for the honorary societies.

Gendron worked with student leaders from the honorary language societies and colleague Dorothee Mertz-Weigel, adjunct assistant French professor.

"We have all played a really important role," said Gendron, who noted that the students picked the films.

Amy Norgard, president of the classics honor society, said the festival's goal is to create awareness on campus and reach out to as many people as possible.

Gendron added that she hopes the festival will "bring people into campus that aren't normally part of campus." This was the reason behind choosing the Weasler, she said. "It is more inclusive."

The organizers, who are laying a "rough foundation," started from scratch, said Norgard, a College of Arts & Sciences senior.

"Now we know how to do it," she said of the multiple steps in organizing the event, from advertising to securing rights to showing the films.

In the initial phase of the project, the big hurdle was finding a venue for three consecutive days. Norgard joked that Gendron would be reserving a venue Thursday morning, the day after the film festival ends.

The foreign film festival began as a French film festival; however, proposals for grants from various organizations were denied.

Then, the festival was approved and is funded mainly by MUSG, which Gendron called "very supportive."

"Getting ready for tonight seems like we've thrown things together," Norgard said Monday afternoon. "We really needed a lot of help. … We were blind going into it."

Next year, Norgard said she would like to see the festival last longer and have part of it scheduled over a weekend.

"It's amazing that (a foreign film festival) of this size has not been on the Marquette campus," she said.

In that past four years, festivals have appeared on campus; however, foreign films have not been highlighted. As part of this year's Mission Week, there was a film festival for submitted movies by student organizations and campus offices. Last spring, MUTV sponsored a student film festival. The Marquette Journal also hosted student film festivals in 2004 and 2005, according to Tribune archives.

In the area, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has hosted a very successful French film festival for 10 years, Gendron said.

"We don't plan on stopping," Gendron said of the festival's future.

Gendron said she would love to see languages other than those taught at Marquette featured at the film festival.