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The fifth annual film festival, put on by the American Film Institute’s Silver Theatre and Cultural Center and the Discovery Channel, showcased 100 films from more than 40 countries, said Silverdocs spokeswoman Jody Arlington.

While it is the films that bring most to the area, for visitors it is often the events outside the theater that make the experience more memorable. Shakya’s visit was the first by a living goddess of Nepal to the United States.

‘‘I didn’t have any idea that the Living Goddess could travel this way,” said Prem Sangraula, president of the America-Nepal Society, which put together a cultural festival Saturday that featured traditional Nepalese foods and dances for Shakya. While he only saw the beginning of the film examining the lives of the deities in Nepal, Sangraula said it was important not only for outsiders, but for the native Nepalese to view the documentary.

‘‘These are real things on the screen. It was very exciting ... especially since many of us have been [in the United States] for a long time,” said Sangraula, who has lived in Washington, D.C., for the last 10 years.

Shakya, who lives in Bhaktapur, an ancient town in Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley, is better known by the Nepalese as Kumari, which literally means ‘‘virgin” and more figuratively a manifestation of a Hindu goddess. Shakya is one of three Kumari living in the Kathmandu Valley and featured in the film. Kumari are chosen when they are about 2 years old based on a rigorous selection process that emphasizes qualities such as fearlessness and physical beauty.

Visitors of Shakya, who sat underneath an umbrella Saturday to shade her from the sun, approached her bowing their heads, hands together in reverence and prayer.

‘‘It’s an intimate portrait of what it’s like to be this little girl revered by tens of thousands of people,” said Silver Spring resident Russell Belcher, who saw the film ‘‘Living Goddess” during the festival. Belcher added that the film allowed people here to experience the ‘‘real beauty of a culture, of a people” without traveling to Kathmandu.

Speaking through a translator, Shakya said she was excited and happy to be in Silver Spring, and was surprised that she was able to find a favorite comfort from home — momo, or meat-filled dumplings.

‘‘She loves jumping and playing,” Shakya’s translator, Vijaya Mark Rana, said, as the precocious little girl, draped in an ornate gold robe, splashed water at a cameraman from the fountain in the Silver Plaza.

Her visit to Silver Spring was also marked by a demonstration by the Kangaroo Kids, a jump rope team from Howard County.

The Kangaroo Kids were promoting the sport of jumping rope as a way to ‘‘get fit and have fun,” and the film that followed, ‘‘Doubletime,” about two teams preparing for the Double Dutch world championships at the Apollo Theater in New York City.

The team of 16 boys and girls of various ages on Saturday bounced on inflatable balls and flipped through the air during a Double Dutch sequence, all while jumping rope.

Near the end of the program, the team lined up together and jumped rope to a series of patriotic songs themed ‘‘Journey Through America,” dedicated to those in the U.S. military serving overseas.

‘‘It’s not every day you see this sort of thing in the downtown,” said Silver Spring resident Lisa Martinez, who came for the ‘‘Doubletime” show early, and happened upon the Kangaroo Kids’ demonstration. ‘‘Having all these people here, it’s a great thing for Silver Spring.”