I love movies. I think they have so much storytelling power that can spread connection and understanding in beautiful and creative ways. In my freshman year of college, I was introduced to an app called Letterboxd where you can rate, review, and catalog movies that you have seen and share them with your friends. Throughout my time in school, letterboxd and movies in general were always an easy point of connection that I could find with people. It is always fun to discuss the most recent blockbusters, argue over the classics, or praise our favorite movies.
In an increasingly disconnected world, it can be hard to build community and friendships with others outside of spaces like a college campus which is a truth often on the forefront of my mind. I believe it is our job to seek out points of connection to build community in our often lonely world, so I wanted to find a way to harness the connective power of movies to do just that. Instead of watching alone on your phone or maybe with only a roommate or family member, sometimes movies are best enjoyed with a whole group of friends or a crowd.
For this reason, I started a brand new club on campus called The Cinema Society. The idea is that the Cinema Society shows a movie in a public space once a week, and afterward everyone in attendance can vote on how they would rate the movie. Then, those ratings are averaged together to be the official Cinema Society rating of the movie. I wanted to be simple yet engaging and fun.
Since it was only our first year as a club, I spent my senior year trying out different things to see what worked best for our members. We had theme nights and collaborated with many different clubs on campus like Hispanos Unidos and the Black Student Union. We also served popcorn with every showing (obviously), and I managed to fundraise for the renovation of a fully equipped movie theater space.
The Cinema Society email list had about 150 emails making us one of the biggest clubs on campus. Depending on the night and the movie, a broad range of people would show up for the showing, anywhere from 15 to 120. I don’t know how long the club will live past my time at ACU, but I was very happy to pass it to one of our most loyal freshmen members, Blaize Whitaker. I am proud of the club I built and the community of movie lovers I made through my work. I hope it continues to bring joy and connection to future generations of movie loving ACU students.
