Last semester, Form V students Dylan Jackson and Sarah Kaiser joined together with Form IV students Alex Brooks and Sophia Gutierrez to create the Fieldston Film Club. After a few weeks of group discussions, the 17 members of the club have new lenses with which to view and interpret film. What’s more, they have expressed an increased interest in recognizing and discussing film genres, directors, and style studies.
“We decided that we would start with the topic of the American dream,” said Brooks. “We watched three American films, two of which were directed by Martin Scorsese. It is an interesting point of view because, in a sense, you are rooting for the criminals in the film. We wanted to watch movies that would pull people in, given that we were a new club,” he added.
The club leaders adapted their plans for their meetings as the semester progressed. They started by asking members to watch the movies throughout the course of the week and come together during Flex Time to discuss their observations. As the semester continued, the leaders collectively decided that showing the films during Flex Time would be a better way to keep their members engaged. They kicked off the semester with The Wolf of Wall Street and GoodFellas. Though unrelated, Brooks said that these films can be viewed as “one large cinematic masterpiece.” While The Wolf of Wall Street followed the story of Wall Street criminals, GoodFellas quite literally followed the lives of gangsters.
Before each movie, the Film Club would research information about the directors, actors and what the movie meant for their careers and additional context about the movie. During their discussions, their overarching question was how do gangster films portray the American Dream and how do they portray American culture?
Club leaders noted that these films highlight a cruel aspect of humanity stigmatized in society, but that is reevaluated once people glue their eyes to their TV. Films like these directed by Scorsese provide escapism from the ordinary, mundane lives of its viewers. The club also discussed the controversial topics in the film such as the exclusion of women in prominent roles and Scorsese’s motive to follow the “male protagonist.”
This semester, the Film Club utilized the Stu-Fac to stream movies onto a large screen for a socially distant club gathering. After Winter Break, the club switched gears and began to focus on the work of director Quentin Tarantino. They began with the movie Pulp Fiction, which took many periods to finish given its length. The leaders then collectively decided that showing shorter movies would be a more efficient way to begin their discussions sooner.
Club member Marisa Hirschfield (IV) expressed her appreciation for the club: “What I love about Film Club is that we not only explore film as an art form, but we appreciate it as a social commentary. Watching The Wolf of Wall Street, we both recognized its incredible cinematic value and discussed what it revealed about corruption and affluence. After seeing Pulp Fiction, we talked about Tarantino’s use of dialogue and also worked to understand how anti-heroes expose the complexities of human nature,” she said.
The club’s goal for the future is to make their screenings more communal. They hope to treat film as literature, something that you can think about and learn from after analyzing each movie. They hope to create a film club culture at Fieldston where a casual screening turns into an in-depth discussion with popcorn and snacks. In a post-COVID world, the club hopes to have guest speakers, actors, and filmmakers come to speak about their experiences in film. Additionally, the club hopes that in the future they will be able to go into theaters and have their members grasp the full movie experience.
