Forget bugging your friends for their Netflix passwords because you’ve been invited to a premiere film festival that will touch your heart but not your bank account. Clemson University students — engineers, philosophers, microbiologists, you name it — are welcome to join as some highly passionate students nerd out over some classic films.
Beginning Oct. 21 and running until early December, a World Cinema Creative Inquiry class has compiled a diverse and ambitious range of films, including “Halloween,” “Summer of Soul,” “Your Name.” and “Mad Max: Fury Road” in screenings open to the public.
At each screening, audience members will receive program notes, which include an introduction to the film written by students explaining why they chose that particular film.
If you get there early enough, maybe, just maybe, you can shake the hand of professor John Smith himself, coordinator of this project and director of the world cinema department here at Clemson.
To give some insight into the theme “From the Archives,” Smith explained, “We want to show older movies that maybe people didn’t know about or hadn’t seen in a long time. We want to raise questions about what might be missing from the archives.“
Additionally, “We want to show how films themselves are archival; ‘Scream’ is a horror movie about horror movies. And we want people to reflect on how the experience of watching movies has changed over time.”
In November, students are invited to a screening of a 35 mm print of Ingmar Bergman’s 1957 film “The Seventh Seal” so they can get a taste of the moviegoing experience of ages past. This series was programmed and curated entirely by Clemson World Cinema students and will provide a unique campus experience: bonding students from across disciplines over a shared love of the movies.
In reference to the students involved in this project, Smith notes, “I think they’ve programmed a series that celebrates the communal experience of moviegoing, an experience I feel is sometimes lost to us.”
There’s something for everyone in the archives, so grab a friend and some snacks, clear your schedule for a few hours and allow yourself to be transported.
