I’ve had a few of you guys bug…er, I mean ask me about my summer film festival. So out of sheer laziness – this post is for you. I’ll try to run individual posts for each of the movies…but hey – no promises.
The general idea is this – get students together, watch a movie, talk about movie.
That’s it.
Of course it helps to “frame” the movie before watching. Like telling the students to pay attention to a certain theme or idea that runs through out the movie. In terms of prep for me what this means is that I’ll have to watch the movie at least twice before the students see it. One of those will be with the Director’s Commentary on. (They are not all boring.) Out of those two screenings, I’ll have about 6 or 7 questions I want to talk about and perhaps the inside scoop from the director himself (or herself) as to what they wanted the audience to walk away from the film with.
Then right before we show the movie, we give the audience a filter through which to watch the movie. For example, we watched Count of Monte Cristo 2 weeks ago. I asked the students to pay careful attention to theme of compromise and how every character interacted with this theme. Was it always bad? Was it always good?
We look for “holy moments” as well as dumb ones to make fun of and critique. Makes for a great night but more importantly it shows how to watch a movie, what to look for, what questions to ask. At the end of the summer, we’ll all go the movies together, grab a coffee afterwards and practice what we learned.
Words of Warning
If you decide to do this, exercise some wisdom.
First, know the kind of culture you are ministering in and the limits therein. I’m in the west, part of major metropolitan area. It’s a little different here than when I was in Little Rock.
Second, pick movies worth watching. I think Tommy Boy is the funniest movie on the planet. Caddyshack is up there as well. Is there enough deep material there to talk about afterwards? Debatable. (Although I love the “Brothers gotta hug” moment.) We picked movies that allow us to probe into some deeper arenas of discussion.
Third, WE picked the movies. I had an elder, a pastor, and a key ministry volunteer help me with the choices of movies. Part of the reason is that they are also parents. Part of the reason is allowing volunteers have authority in decisions, not just responsibility. The biggest reason though is that 4 sets of eyes and ears are better than one.
Here are the movies we are digging into this summer:
High School Film Festival
The Count of Monte Cristo, 131 min, PG-13
Les Miserables, 131 min, PG-13
Eragon, 104 min, PG
I, Robot, 115 min, PG-13
Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire, 157 min, PG-13
The Pursuit of Happyness, 117 min, PG-13
Middle School Film Festival
Joshua, 91 min, G
The Count of Monte Cristo, 131 min, PG-13
Eragon, 104 min, PG
Bridge To Terabithia, 95 min, PG
Facing The Giants, 111 min, PG
Secondhand Lions, 111 min, PG
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11 Comments
wow love the idea. we havee a sabbath retreat every year where no electronics are allowed except for one movie that we all watch together and then interpret together. i’ll have to steal the film festival idea. pam loves the idea too but she asked where the chick flicks were?
2 things.
1) DANG – i wanna’ be in your youth group!
2) loved your hiking pix — esp. the ‘Dam ruins.’ several years ago we were introduced to a swedish candy that is basically a heath bar w/ more chocolate. it’s called ‘Daim.’ (guess how we pronounce it?) tom and lisa take particular pleasure in asking for some daim candy. i won’t even go into the whole story about going to the Norway exhibit at Epcot to get some – while Lisa was toting a HUGE Eeyore she had just bought. there was some tasteless discussion about his species and size being related to the candy we were about to enjoy. you do the math.
oh, and 3) probably would have been tough to manage it this trip anyway, but missed meeting up w/ you guys!
Our goal for every film festival is to be able to say that there were no students harmed in the making of this festival.
In order to keep this promise we have to prohibit the showing of chick flicks as they have been known to produce vomiting, shortness of breath, passing out, and in some extreme cases death due to predictability.
We hope Pam understands.
Okay Grant, Pam here. Tongue-in-cheek aside, I like most of the movies on the list and even if I didn’t, I think that they all warrant some good, lively, and thought-provoking discussion. No beef there. However, if you consider the topics, not the underlying themes, you are talking dragon and magic/fantasy, prison/crime, sci fi, and sports with the exception of “The Pursuit of Happyness” and “Joshua.” Those aren’t movie genres that women naturally gravitate to. I know when I am listening to a sermon and the pastor uses a sports analogy it will not connect with me even if I attend enough to hear the whole. So, I’m not advocating chick-flick fluff like “Sweet Home Alabama” or “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days” but there are some serious issues to deal with in movies like “Clueless” (which is based on Jane Austen’s book, “Emma”), “Mean Girls,” “Saved,” “Life is Beautiful,” and “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (which is a profoundly deep movie about identity in Christ at its core–although I’m sure the directors and writers didn’t know that).
As Robert mentioned, we both love the film festival idea and you can consider it stolen…ummm, borrowed. However, just throwing out there that little feminine perspective can go a long way. Not every chick flick is an inane as “Legally Blonde.”
I liked Legally Blonde.
mean girls is one of my favorite movies and definately has many relevant issues for high school kids, and the same goes for saved.
Saved is NOT a chick flick. It’s a docudrama of private christian school life.
Let the comments fly on that one! ha ha.
Pam – I refer you to my chick flick list here.
i can’t believe i haven’t seen saved yet – need to. i also gently affirm Pam’s comments – surprise! hey – maybe you need a few Hitchcock films in your arsenal (ok, probably not ‘psycho’) — ‘rear window’ could generate some interesting banter on community, among other things – AND – would be equally appealing (or not) to males/females.
Just gave you some blog love by saying what a great idea on my blog.
Len,
I love it when you give me blog-love.
Congrats on your Red Sox. I hope they can maintain this pace.
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