Arts & Culture
Cinema Appreciation Club brings diverse showing of films to campus
The Pointer
nmeye177@uwsp.edu
The Cinema Appreciation Club, run by founder Sean Smalley and Jennie Wood, is back in full swing this semester, beginning with the films “Fanny and Alexander,” directed by Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman and “Tokyo Story,” directed by Yasujir Ozu. Both are considered masterpieces in the eyes of many film critics.
They continued their quest to share their knowledge of film this week, showing “Bringing up Baby” on Tuesday and “Down by Law” on Wednesday. “Bringing up Baby,” directed by Howard Hawks and starring Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant, is a screwball comedy that tells the story of a scientist winding up in various quandaries involving a woman with a slightly skewed sense of reason and a leopard named Baby.
The films made for a very different, less abrasive start to the semester for the club in comparison with last semester’s opening showing of “Pink Flamingos,” much to the dismay of many in the audience. Directed by John Waters, this American transgressive comedy has become one of his most notorious films as a result of the shocking, taboo displaying of perverse acts.
“I knew after the involvement fair we were going to have a huge turn out and I kind of wanted to shock people and also at the same time wanted to weed some people out,” Smalley said. “I know people go to the involvement fair looking for things to sign up for and they see movies and they think, “oh, they’re going to show ‘Stepbrothers’ or something, and that’s not what we’re about.”
Audience members prematurely exiting from a film screening is nothing new for Smalley, who said he experienced it often when Cinema Appreciation Club was still known as Horror Film Society. According to Smalley, the intention of the club was never to shock people, but to show them great films they have no outlet to see in Stevens Point.
“I am essentially trying to provide a forum for historically important and aesthetically important films that people don’t have access to normally,” said Smalley. “Some of them are 70-to- 80-years-old and there’s no way to see them in a theatrical setting in a place like Stevens Point.”
Smalley started the organization after his freshman year of college after discovering the checkout program for films at the IMC, which includes loans from other university libraries. From there on out, he was hooked and began learning all he could about film.
“I found out that you can check movies out from the library and you can also check movies out from other university libraries,” Smalley said. “So when I had that open to me, I took advantage of it and I was able to get copies of a lot of historically important films and see films by all these great directors.”
After immersing himself in film books, blogs and taking the communication department’s art of film class, he was ready to share his love of film with the campus. He began with founding the Horror Film Society. Eventually, though, he decided to broaden the scope of movies he showed, choosing movies from all genres instead. Now, he shows two films a week on campus for mostly small crowds.
Smalley tries to choose his movies from a critically objective standpoint. He said he looks at how each film is historically important, how it is aesthetically important and how it affected the ways filmmakers thought about the medium.
“I want to try and educate people about film history. For me, I consider film an art form and with any art form or medium of expression, there are classics of each medium,” Smalley said.
Even though they’ve taken a less brash route with film screenings so far this semester and the intention is to not shock but share, Smalley says there are still a few films they will show this year that people will walk out on. His film list for this semester is already decided and, according to him, contains some intense films.
“Some of the films we’re showing this semester are really intense. We’re showing a film called “Crash” that is essentially about people who enjoy crashing cars, and having sex in the cars, and watching crash test footage and getting off on that. It’s a really bizarre film,” Smalley said.
In the future, Smalley hopes to open the door for more discussion after the film screenings, something that he hasn’t been successful with thus far. All he asks for from those who attend is an open mind; he in turn promises to warn film-goers that may have weak stomachs or virgin eyes ahead of time if the films are explicit.
For those interested in sharing in these films and getting on Cinema Appreciation Club’s mailing list, send an e-mail to horror@uwsp.edu.
