Every Thursday and Saturday evening, members of the College’s Film Club pile into the leather-cushioned couches of Horn to watch the club’s most recent selections. Choices range from Annie Hall, starring the late Diane Keaton, to the psychedelic 60s feature Daisies. During movie showings, the lights go down, the crowd quiets to a hush, and the watch party commences.
The Film Club has been working hard this year to grow its presence on campus by hosting regular screenings and sponsoring more community events. The core mission of the club is to be a creative outlet and a space for students to take a break from their work while appreciating art together, explained the club’s president, Isabel Kaiser ’26.
“ Movies are more than entertainment, and I think it’s really quite nice to get a group of people together,” Kaiser said. “When I joined the older iteration of the Film Club, screenings were not happening that often, and they were sort of under-attended.”
Although the Film Club is aiming for consistent programming, their marketing tactics are ever-changing, going beyond run-of-the-mill posters and GroupMe reminders. “ One thing I’m really enjoying [about running] the film club is doing guerrilla marketing,” Kaiser said. “We’ve done some chalk work. We chalked Possession in front of Sawyer Library, and we are postering each week for the movies and whatnot.”
Catherine Shutt ’26.5, another member of the Film Club’s board, hopes that the club will create a “third space” for students at the College. These are communal gathering spaces distinct from the home and the workplace, something that has been gradually disappearing from American communities.
Especially in the throes of the College’s exam season, providing the opportunity for communal recreation is crucial, Shutt said. “ I think that not only is it really important to make time to have that work-life balance,” she said. “[But also] to do things that aren’t schoolwork [as well as] all of the things that you do as a Williams student.”
For Shutt, her aspirations for Film Club are intimately tied to her own academic research. “I’m actually doing my honors thesis right now because I’m an anthropology major, and I’m doing it on film-going and film as a ritual in 1950s America,” she explained.
Although to some, watching a movie might seem like a solitary activity consisting of streaming Netflix while lying in bed, Shutt disagrees. She believes that consuming film should be the opposite: experienced with others.
“In the same way that it can be a communal experience when you go to a concert or even when you go to church, you have the experience of watching [a film] with people that you know, people you don’t know, people around you who are laughing, who are reacting, and just that feeling of being present,” she said.
As the club is now just getting its footing and attaining regular members, they’re only screening one movie per session. But Kaiser hopes to change that as the year goes on. “ I would love to do some double bills,” she said. “We [hope to] show two movies in one sitting, either spotlighting an actor or a director, or whatnot. I would love to do a total movie marathon. I don’t know if there’s ever a calmer week, which I don’t think we really get around here, but four movies in one day could really rock, or film club 24-hour programming.”
The club also hopes to expand beyond the student body and is planning to work with Images Cinema on a collaborative event following its reopening this spring.
Kaiser wants people to come to the club to get out of their comfort zone and be exposed to new movies and genres. “ I think everyone will get their own thing out of the movie-going experience,” Kaiser said. “And it’s a nice community, and I think we’re really building something this year, and I’m really excited that people really are coming. I know that it’s difficult to come, it’s sort of daunting for people to carve out a two-hour block of time and watch a movie on a weeknight. But it’s so good. It’s good for the soul.”
