Without paying a dime, DePauw students are getting the opportunity to laugh, cry and learn, thanks to the DePauw University Film Studies Film Series.
This fall, the Film Studies department is showing six movies as a part of the series, including award-winning documentaries, dramas and comedies. Christine White, director of the Film Studies program, is very excited for the series to achieve its goals of unification and understanding through the art of film.
“We hope to address a diverse audience with diverse interests and attempt to engage departments and programs across the university,” White said. “[Films] give us a look at these difficult issues through the lens of art and help us to negotiate challenging ideas while inspiring us to make our own marks on the world--through creating our own art, through scholarly examination, through activism or service or simply through changing the way we view ourselves and others.”
The first of the films, “Little Women,” was shown Wednesday night at Ashley Square Cinema. Based on the novel by Louisa May Alcott, this 1994 film was directed by Gillian Armstrong and written by Robin Swicord. Its plot focuses on the lives of four sisters during the Civil War and afterward, especially the independent Jo. The DePauw School of Music will perform this story’s opera adaptation, by Mark Adamo, in the spring.
Student reactions to the film were largely positive and fulfilling.
“My uncle gave me the book forever ago,” said first-year student Lexie Schwipps. “It was interesting actually getting to see what happens on screen.”
Marko Mavrovic, a film student, was encouraged by his professor to attend the movie.
“I believe one of the managers was giving an upcoming preview of all the different movies,” said Mavrovic. “While they aren’t your mainstream movies, they are interesting movies that I have heard of prior. So it’s going to be interesting.”
There are even opportunities for post-film discussion.
“The Film Series hopes to challenge its audience in various ways--even when it’s through laughter--to get people talking, whether in more formal, post-film discussions and forums (often held in the Emerson Room at the Inn) or when students get together after a film for a coffee or sit talking at lunch the next day,” explained White. “Post-film discussions or forums sometimes include visiting filmmakers and always include students as well as pertinent faculty and / or other leaders in academia, the arts or the community.”
Cosponsors for the film series include the School of Music, the Prindle Institute, DePauw Asian Studies, Association of African American Students, the Office of Multicultural Affairs, DePauw Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies and the Women’s Center.
The rest of the films will be shown on Wednesday nights at 7 p.m. throughout the fall semester. The next film, “Obvious Child”, will be shown on September 23.