ORLANDO, Fla. – The 2018 Global Peace Film Festival kicked off this week and it's celebrating its sweet 16 this year.
"I felt that it was really important to define a positive vision of peace and not look at war and peace and so we cover issues -- really wide-range issues," Nina Streich, executive director of the film festival, said.
Streich launched the event 16 years ago as a response to the Iraq war. Streich added that the focus of the film festival is to showcase the impact social and cultural issues have in our communities.
"After tragedies like two years ago like Pulse, and just the other night the incident that had Rollins college on lockdown," Streich said.
Through the film festival, she hopes viewers will become part of the change.
"Our tagline is 'It Starts Here' because we want people to come to see a film and be inspired by what they see and decide to do something positive in their community," Streich said.
The festival promotes local filmmakers like Vicki Nantz. Her film "Uprising: Pulse to Parkland" shows the effect of mass shootings that hit close to home.
"It's really a reaction to the violence. What can we do now? And so I went to Washington to the march and I incorporate the Parkland kids. This is what they're doing," Nantz said about her film in which she interviewed a couple of local legislators to find out what they are doing in terms of better gun control laws.
Nantz also aims to create awareness about the importance of going to the polls.
"In a democracy, the only thing, super power that we have, is voting. So we can't just give up, there is something we can do," Nantz said.
At this year's Global Peace Film Festival, a well-known photographer from South Africa brought his work titled, "Nelson Mandela through the eyes of Peter Morey," to be a part of Nina's vision.
"I like the idea and the message they're trying to portray and I think it ties in beautifully with the message that Madiba tried to put out," Morey said.
Morey captured countless portraits of one of the 20th century's most important civil rights activist. Many of them are displayed at City Arts Factory in downtown Orlando.
"There's so much that we all learned from Madiba but especially his forgiveness and his ability to unite people," Morey said.
The festival has something for everyone. From feature films to short films and many documentaries, too.
A total of 31 films will be shown.
For information about scheduling and tickets visit www.peacefilmfest.org.