Here’s the complete schedule:

May 1. Where is the Friend’s Home? Directed by Abbas Kiarostomi (Iran, 1989). A boy defies his parents by searching for a friend’s home to return a notebook so that the friend will not be expelled from school. Farsi with English subtitles.

May 8. The Circle. Directed by Jafar Panahi (Iran, 1999). Women at the bottom of Iran’s social ladder who have no male relatives to legitimize them land in trouble with the law, often for little reason. The movie was banned in Iran until it began winning film festival winning awards, including the Golden Lion at the 2000 Venice Film Festival. Farsi with English subtitles.

May 15. Guelwar. Directed by Ousmane Sembene (Senegal, 1992). When the body of a Christian is mistakenly buried in a Muslim cemetery, a black comedy of red tape, corruption and petty village conflict breaks out. Wolof with English subtitles.

May 22. Ceddo. Directed by Ousmane Sembene (Senegal, 1977). The kidnapping of a beautiful princess during the Muslim expansion leads to a clash between the Muslims and the Ceddo, a feudal class of common people. Wolof with English subtitles.

The series is hosted by the anthropology department and funded by a grant from the Christian A. Johnson Foundation.

The $22,000 award will support a year of travel and research in Senegal and Romania, where Drake will study how political and social change has affected artistic production and funding for the fine arts.

The Thomas J. Watson Foundation this year considered 185 candidates nominated by 49 private, liberal arts colleges noted for their quality and commitment to undergraduate education.

Bates history professor Dennis Grafflin, the Thomas J. Watson liaison officer for Bates and the chair of the college’s Watson Committee, said that the fellowship program, now in its 31st year, “is unique in its concern for giving recent college graduates an opportunity to develop an interest anywhere else in the world, outside the framework of academic or occupational responsibilities. It is the most long-term sort of investment in human capital, seeking to expand its fellows’ sense of their own capacities as people who will lead and change the world.”

The Thomas J. Watson Fellowship Program seeks to recognize individuals who demonstrate integrity, strong ethical character, intelligence, the capacity for vision and leadership and potential for humane and effective participation in the world community.

Drake, an art history and French double major at Bates, has written her senior honors thesis on “Jacques de la Villegle’s Affiches Lacerees: (Recomposing) Shreds of Consumerism, Primitivism and Popular Culture in mid 20th Century France.” A member of the Bates concert choir and the chamber singers, Drake performed works by Bach, Mozart and Faure for her senior voice recital and was soprano soloist in a spring performance of Mozart’s “Requiem.”

During her junior year abroad, Drake studied French in Tours, France, and art history at Parisian universities. The summer after her junior year abroad, Drake returned to Lewiston, where she served as a marketing and public relations intern with the United Way of Androscoggin County in Bates’ Ladd Internship program. She received the college’s Charles A. Dana Scholar Award in 1996 for leadership and academic excellence.

Drake, the daughter of Robert and Nancy Drake of Granville, is a 1995 graduate of Granville High School.