Maria Castro, Contributor
The MU Film Society is kicking back into high gear for the spring semester. To gain back their popularity on campus, the club has been trying to organize new projects and collaborations with other organizations, while maintaining the original essence of what Film Society stands for.
Nana Sam, a management major and the main organizer of the club, spoke to The Quadrangle about the difficulty of screening movies after the departure of their previous faculty advisor. Margaret Groarke, Ph.D., the new advisor for the club, has opened new horizons for what Film Society is able to do.
“I wanted to bring back [the club’s] original form,” Sam said. “Which was to screen a movie and have discussions about it, what we think…to bring out your real thoughts and opinions.”
One of the main goals of the club is to have people dig deeper into film and have insightful conversations about the movie they’ve watched, bringing different perspectives and ideas.
“I don’t want to limit [Film Society] to one specific area, it could be someone who’s just getting into film and wants to just watch a movie and talk about it,” Sam said.
The Film Society is open to anybody who wants to have a conversation about a film they enjoy.
Sage Clarke, a senior communication major with a minor in Spanish and digital arts, frequented this club during its most active period and shared her experience with The Quadrangle.
“It’s a really great environment, it’s super easy to show up, you don’t even need to come with any friends,” Clarke said. “Honestly, a lot of people just showed up alone because they liked to watch movies and wanted to have a conversation with somebody.”
Aureliano Morales, a communication major with a media production concentration and a minor in film studies, has been working alongside Sam to bring the film society back while also focusing on how the club is capable of bringing people together.
“Half the time we watch films either by ourselves or on Netflix so it’s very rare to have room for interaction or reactions while watching a film,” Morales said. “I want a union of bringing people together and watching a film and then seeing how they feel about it, like what did [the film] mean to you?”
Outside of watching movies, MU Film Society is meant to provide a space for individuals to socialize and share their takes on a wide variety of topics.
“To keep people engaged, I don’t wanna show any types of films that are too safe or vanilla, I want to bring their interest into the club,” Sam said. “If they have a movie that they wanna show to other people that would sort of bring their taste and their interest there and that would keep them there [in the club], they could probably find people that were into their tastes and all.”
Plans to capitalize on the conversational nature of the club are meant to keep people engaged and returning. Clarke praised how Film Society takes advantage of the flexibility and diversity of film, showing movies that are not mainstream and can spike the interest of a disparate group of people.
“We see a lot of stuff that we personally are interested in, things you know you are more inclined to watch, so I think things like this gives people a chance to see different kinds of entertainment and media that they might not usually choose for themselves,” Clarke said. “I think it’s also good because when you have a bunch of different people meeting you can hear people’s different perspectives, they can bring different cultural standpoints to it and I think that it’s always good to have a space where you can look deeper into everyday things or concepts that you might not normally think about.”
Morales agreed with Clarke’s sentiment, and discussed further the club’s plans heading into the future.
“We want to branch out more.” Morales said. “I also wanna promote low-key theaters too because they don’t really get a lot of money, but they really show good films too.”