Maineland, a documentary film, is based on the lives of two high school students from China who moved to the United States to be international students.

These students leave their home countries to appreciate new experiences while improving themselves and their futures.

The film held a screening Tuesday evening in the South Ballroom of the Memorial Union.

Director Miao Wang followed two teenagers to document how they settle into a boarding school in rural Maine. The students are shown through the process of being accepted into the boarding school through the time they graduate from Fryeburg Academy.

Stella, one of the main students of the film, comes from a high middle-class family where her parents are entrepreneurs. Harry, the other main student of the film, is also from a middle-class family where his father is a businessman.

Stella and Harry are shown through the years at the boarding school to have doubts of what they want to do for their future based on what their parents do for a living.

They are shown throughout the film how they adapt to a new culture and what they involve themselves in to “fit in” to what they think is the “American normal,” like the movie High School Musical.

Stella is not very shy and is comfortable to talk to the other students at the school. She becomes very comfortable in her new setting as she joins the cheerleading squad in order to adapt to the American culture.

Harry, on the other hand, is shyer and does not so easily get out of his shell. In times of social activities, he stayed in his room and played video games by himself.

These different situations of two different people show how easy or hard it can be for international students to adapt to such a new setting.

“I didn’t realize how scary of a transition it is to move from such a different country,” said Allison Schurr, junior in advertising.

The showing of such a documentary gave the audience in the South Ballroom of the Memorial Union a new perspective on the experiences that international students live through to be able to further their education.

Wang was able to share in the discussion after how she moved from Beijing to the United States when she was only 12 years old. She hoped to capture through her film how this community of people are affected through this transition from what their gender, socioeconomic class and even family status’ may be.

“I am now more aware of international students at Iowa State and what they may be going through in coming to such a different place from their home,” said Ellen Pappas, sophomore in psychology.