LYNN – A small crowd of colorfully dressed young women giggled nervously as they handed out programs for the premiere of their short films in Lynn English High School’s Living in Two Worlds Film Festival.”I feel really good about it,” said Nnedi Oranekwu. “I’m excited but I don’t know how my sister will feel. She hasn’t heard herself on tape yet.”More than a dozen students debuted films on Thursday that highlighted the celebration and the struggles that come with living between two different cultures.”It’s about how we sometimes look different,” said Noha Almomani, 17, who was describing her film but managed to sum up nearly everyone’s.In her film, Almomani, who wore a sparkling silver head scarf, interviews her sister and friends, asking them to explain what it means to wear a hijab and to share a favorite stereotype they’ve encountered.Her sister said wearing a hijab preserves a woman’s beauty by forcing people to focus on her intellect.”I don’t feel that it makes me different,” she said. “Hair is an accessory, under a hijab we are no different.”One woman in the film said she is often asked if she has to wear the hijab at home.”That is like me asking if you sleep with your shoes on,” she said.Oranekwu also included her sister on her journey, which focused on their experiences going to boarding school in their parents’ native Nigeria. Despite their strong desire not to go, Oranekwu said the experience changed her life and her viewpoint.Oranekwu admitted she had a very limited and stereotypical picture of what Africa looked like. In the film she describes Nigeria as a dying, desolate, dusty and starving country while a shot of a cheetah running across the Serengeti plays out with the music from “The Lion King” in the background.She said she was shocked to discover “there was electricity and roads, and people lived in houses, and there was a glorious abundance of food.” She called the bi-cultural experience humbling.”I’m proud of Nigeria and I’m proud to say her energy, her pride and her history runs through my veins,” she said.Program Coordinator Molly Cohen said the project was funded through the Cummings Foundation, One World grant, a program that aims to improve inter-cultural understanding. Colleagues Virginia Keenan, Yesenia Deleon and Tina Beaulieu along with Richard Bedine, executive director of Solutions for Living, also helped guide students through the project.”It’s been 15 to 18 kids participating from September to this evening,” Cohen said. “They are a great group of kids. It’s been a journey of self-discovery and a new understanding of what it means to be bi-cultural.”Samar Khuder dressed in a long, soft pink dress with diamond rhinestones dripping down the front, reminiscent of her homeland, Iraq. In her film she said her family, which was essentially forced to flee, landed in the U.S. in October and ran right into Halloween. That was a bit of a shock, since Iraq has no such holiday, she said.”I like living in two countries,” Khuder said. “Even if you are old when you move to another country you will find yourself in a baby position again. You have to learn everything new again.”In other shorts Gabriela Gonzalez talked about the best parts of being from the Dominican Republic, such as her grandmother’s cooking and the general happiness of the people. Sophia Bourdeaux and Emilie Dadaille discussed life in Haiti compared to Lynn and the differences in the educational system.Bourdeaux said Haitian teachers would think nothing of striking a student and parents had no recourse if they wanted their child to have an education.Minera Idris from Bangladesh shared her thoughts on fasting for Ramadan and 17-year-old Claritz Ramos talked about her role as homemaker for her older brother and father. She said she understands that Americans believe her lot to be the result of a sexist society but for her it’s normal.”If we spent one day stepping into someone else’s normal ? there is no one normal, we’re all unique,” she said.Jo