It Matters Not What Your Film Club Does For You

The Furman school year 25-26 was my first year as Furman Film Club's President after serving as Vice President and co-founder the previous year. I had such a great time building connections, planning and executing new events, and pushing ourselves to be a more prominent figure on campus. But what I am really proud of are the memories that will last a lifetime. One of our last events was the Furman University Film Festival, but I will save that for one of the next posts, so keep an eye out.

Off Campus Trip ~ Mystery Movie Monday

Starting at the beginning we had our first large off campus trip to go to Mystery Movie Monday. Mystery Movie Monday is a semi-regular $5 regal showing on...Mondays...where you do not know the film you are going to see. The only information you have is the general runtime and the rating (and when it is horror they indicate the genre).

It was so fun seeing everybody with various movie theater snacks, as the cost was offset by the ticket being covered by us. We all talked about the movie afterward outside. It was so fun watching everyone, including myself, make predictions and waiting for the title card to come on screen. We all thought the movie was okay, but we definitely had a more than okay time together. 

Myself, Lucy Gamblin, La'Kia Robertson, and other Furman University students.

Table Read Night

One of our next major events was our Table Read Night. We had students bring in different scripts. We had a referential murder mystery, some comedies, and a horror drama. It was super interesting to see the variety of work students produced. We even had some theater majors that came out to act out the parts.  It was so fun to hear everyone different voices they were putting on. We had some British accents, some Southern. The scripts came to life off of the page.

A posed photo of all of the attendees.

Off Campus Trip ~ Project Hail Mary

Our last big trip was our trip to see the movie Project Hail Mary. In the car I was in, we had a couple people that have read the book before watching the movie, so it was interesting hearing their perspectives. Once again there was so many people with snacks. I warned my friend I know that works at the movies before the grand arrival of the Film Club. He said it was okay (personally I’d be stressed by a group size like that).

Now that I have gone to Regal Cherrydale for as long as I have, it’s rough around the edges, but it is a familiar place and is etched into my brain just as much as any classroom, or dorm room on campus. As for the movie...We all loved Rocky. We thought he was adorable. We loved just how alien he looked, and the fact that he didn’t have a face. We thought it was a bit long, but it really is just special to go out with a ton of people and watch a movie together. 

A group photo of all of the Furman Film Club attendees!

Film Club's First CLP

We also partnered with HOLA (Hispanic Outreach and Latinx Awareness) on campus to have a CLP (cultural life program. CLPs are events that students at Furman University need to graduate. Every student roughly needs 32 CLPs.

We partnered with the Spanish department at Furman. For a while, we didn’t have any idea if this event was going to progress because of schedules and timelines. The original date we planned would have been tight for us, another date tight for HOLA, and a new one didn’t work for the Spanish department. There was also some other factors that made us uncertain on if this event was going to come to fruition, but it did! We had a CLP.

Many students attended. It was the film Quinceañera and we learned about quinceañeras in a presentation from Dr. Angélica Lozano-Alonso. We also learned about white, queer gentrification in the presentation, as the film showcased it and had a queer Latino character. It was super fun to work with HOLA, and we plan to hopefully do it again next year. Furman University’s Spanish Department has something big planned for film next year, so we will have to keep our eye out, and we will help as needed. It is also just great to watch films showcasing diverse backgrounds. It had an early Sean Baker vibe to it. I thought she made a good pick, and none of the Film Club or HOLA had watched it. Overall, we had a great time! 

Final Thoughts

I have to say, as much as I love our major events, nothing will ever top the silly little discussions I have with my close friends in the club. They’ll take Alex when she’s going off the rails about the new Scooby Doo live action cast (it’s atrocious in my opinion, all respect to the actors though), or Alex when they are actually diving into the meaning of a film.

We will go over the same few actors we joke about, some lovingly (Sebastian Stan for former Treasurer, Roommate, and forever friend Lucy Gamblin ‘26), Sophie Thatcher, Willem Dafoe, and Luca Guadagnino, or some…not so lovingly (particularly Armie Hammer for reasons that are guessable in a Google search). I love that at our last meeting with our bellies full of pizza, we ended up down a rabbit hole of “What if there was an A24 theme park, appropriately named A24Land, of course?” Now, I just send the words “Smashing Machine Parking Lot,” and I will just get intense laughter from my friend Max Clardy ‘27 and he will always respond with “It’s just a regular parking lot.” 

I love the little moments that have collected over time from the various people I got to know from Film Club. I love how whenever I see my friend and (starting his second year as) Film Club’s social media manager Ryan Macon '28, we point at each other arms are FULLY extended. I am not ready to leave them yet. I only have one real semester with them. I hope they all know they are a DM away. And I will always, ALWAYS add their movie recommendations to my watchlist. I'm gonna miss then, but it isn't time to get sappy yet. Wait another year for that.