Blog posting written by Chloe Wilson, Television-Radio '14, FLEFF Blogger, Ashland, Massachusetts.

When I was a freshman in high school, I got bitten by the travel bug.

With the People to People Student Ambassador Program, I travelled to Australia to discover an entire new culture.  I stayed with a host family, got to snorkel through the Great Barrier Reef, and hike around Uluru - considered by many to be an unofficial wonder of the world.

After that, all of the money I earned from part-time jobs went to travel - whether it was a class trip to Germany or gas money so I could drive to visit my friend a few towns over, I loved travelling and I loved being mobile.  

The ability to explore - which I think is inherent to this year's theme of mobilities - is something a lot of people take for granted.  Many people in countries all over the world do not have access to things that seem commonplace to us - public transportation, well-paved roads, government access to leave and enter countries freely.  

FLEFF allows artists, scholars, interns, and all other attendees to be mobile.  Physically, FLEFF is an international festival that brings people of many cultures together.  Intellectually, ideas at FLEFF travel from person to person and at the festival's end, they travel to the homes of all who attended. 

Being mobile allows us to explore other places while sharing our knowledge. FLEFF's theme of mobilities gives us the opportunity to explore that this year.  

What are your thoughts about this year's theme of mobilities?

Blog posting written by Shawn Steiner, Film, Photography, and Visual Arts ’13, FLEFF Intern, Elkridge, Maryland

Have you ever geotagged a photograph?

I do it all the time! 

Some artists even do the opposite. Nate Larson and Marin Shindelman took photos to go with the location of the tweets that caption the photographs. Geolocation is an incredible “tribute to the data stream,” as they call it.

It calls into question the idea of place and movement.

Movement today is different. Smoother. Less physical. In one second we can receive a message from the other side of the world. We can actually be in another place in real time.

But, what does all this mean?

It means that we can go wherever we want at any time. We can go to Flickr and travel to a beach in Costa Rica. All from the comfort of our bedrooms. And, if you close the curtains, you may be able to forget that it is snowing here in Ithaca, NY.

Mobilities explores this idea. FLEFF brings people and ideas from all around the world to transport the attendees to all around the world. The Distributed Microtopias Exhibition brings together work from India, Ethiopia, the United States, Iraq, and plenty others. And that’s just one thing.

I hope I can make it to Latin America with a little help from FLEFF.

Where do you want to travel?