Our community will get a chance to broaden our horizons with the Annual Human Rights Commission Film Festival presented March 7-9 at the Historic Paramount Theatre.

It begins at 7 p.m. on Thursday with “Miss Representation.” This powerful film exposes how mainstream media contribute to the under-representation of women in positions of power and influence in America.

Featuring provocative interviews with politicians, journalists, entertainers, activists and academics, like Condoleezza Rice, Katie Couric, Margaret Cho, Rosario Dawson and Gloria Steinem, this film challenges the media’s limited and often disparaging portrayals of women and girls, which make it difficult for women to achieve leadership positions and for the average woman to feel powerful herself.

At 7 p.m. on Friday, will present “Precious Knowledge,” which portrays the final years of the highly successful but controversial Mexican American Studies Program at Tucson High School.

The program was a national model of educational success, but when the political tide shifted in Arizona in the 2000s, it became a lightning rod in the public conversation about race.

In 2011 Arizona lawmakers passed a bill giving unilateral power to the state superintendent of schools to abolish ethnic studies classes.

The Festival closes on Saturday with two films. At 2 p.m. they will present the fun-filled family movie “Despicable Me.” Then at 7 p.m. they will present “Out in the Silence,” a film for fairness and equality in rural and small town America.

“Out in the Silence” dramatically illustrates the universal challenges of being an outsider in a conservative environment and the transformation that is possible when those who have long been constrained by a traditional code of silence summon the courage to break it. All of the films are free and open to the public.