A theater near you: Street searches campus for reel entertainment

As midnight approaches on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, crowds of Princeton students gather just past the edge of campus. They wait on the sidewalk, hoping to get inside in time so that their University IDs can gain allow access to hours of entertainment.

These students aren’t on Prospect Avenue — they’re on Nassau Street, waiting outside the Princeton Garden Theatre for the free movies funded by the Undergraduate Film Organization, a subcommittee of the USG. This program allows University students to see recently released movies at 11:30 p.m. or midnight on weekend nights for free.

The UFO chair, Chris Dodds ’13, works with other USG members as well as the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students to determine which movies to show. Dodds also serves as the executive editor of multimedia for The Daily Princetonian.

UFO can show any movie it want as long as it has been out for four to six weeks, all on actual film reels. The UFO also has a limited number of first-run showings each year; recently including “The Social Network” and “Black Swan.” In addition, the group arranges occasional previews, such as the recent prerelease screening of “The Adjustment Bureau.” Dodds described this advanced screening as “really exciting.”

While the UFO might be the most public film-oriented organization, other groups allow students to become more directly involved in film. Subtitles: The Princeton Film Society runs smaller screenings of independent and international films and facilitates discussions about them. Princeton Student Entertainment Network, run by Shelina Kurwa ’12, also provides a place for filmmakers to practice their skills and show their work.

Last Sunday, PSEN and Subtitles co-sponsored an Academy Awards viewing party in Wu Cafe. As they feasted on ice cream and Indian food, students filled out ballots predicting which movies and people would win in each category. The event was well-attended, and many of the students who came had never been involved with either organization before.

This sort of film-oriented event would once have been rare at Princeton. Both organizations arose in response to the lack of student film groups. Film not only struggles for complete academic acceptance on campus, but also faces challenges in forming communities. In contrast to other art forms, such as live theater or music, film doesn’t automatically inspire people to form consistent and loyal groups around it.

This lack of campus film groups led Fareed Ben-Youssef ’09, who was interested in filmmaking and international film, to start Subtitles. When he mentioned this idea in a speech about diversity, he caught the attention of Oti Colon ’12. “I thought it sounded like a great idea,” she said. Ben-Youssef also convinced Marcus Theus ’12 to join. And when Vicky Gan ’13 mentioned her love of film during the icebreakers at the beginning of Inter-Action, Colon suggested that she become involved in the group.

The three now run the club, working together to select films and organize events. Theus described their goal “for students to come check out interesting movies that aren’t really mainstream, with an emphasis on international film.” The club runs a weekly film series, as well as an annual international film festival which screens several films in the Garden Theatre each spring.

According to Theus, watching subtitled films forced him to pay closer attention, particularly when he would be prone to “zoning out” after a long week. The subtitles can add their own interesting dimension as well. “When you see some of the rougher films, some of the translations are pretty interesting,” he says.

Although the club’s name emphasizes its international aspect, it shows art house and independent films in addition to foreign movies. Many focus on ideas or issues that would be overlooked in mainstream entertainment. As Colon explained, film is “a really interesting way to bring attention to social issues.”

The social and cultural concepts in the films often spark casual discussions afterward. In an informal setting, students can discuss what they liked or disliked about the film, or what interested them. These conversations can be particularly interesting when a film leaves questions unanswered; after a recent screening of a David Lynch movie, students debated about what had actually been happening in the ambiguous film.

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Subtitles also tries to arrange speakers to visit and discuss the films. After meeting the director of “Waltz with Bashir” at a film festival, Ben-Youssef brought him to campus to speak. Without such connections, Colon explains, it’s difficult to obtain speakers, because they must be contacted through agents and other indirect channels.

The need for connections is partly why Gan went to the Sundance Film Festival this year. She said she has a personal goal of making the expedition a yearly trip. As a representative of the club and of the University, Gan had a film school pass that allowed her to attend panels and meetings with filmmakers. In addition to seeing lots of movies and talking to the filmmakers themselves, she also met many students who were currently in film school.

Film courses at Princeton are harder to come by. The classes in the film department are very strong, according to Kurwa, but are daunting for those who simply want to try filmmaking for fun. Gan mentioned that some courses are simply difficult to find. For example, there is a documentary filmmaking course, but it’s in the Portuguese department; a student looking under visual arts would likely miss it.

Though Subtitles provides a venue for students to see, appreciate and discuss films, Kurwa was interested in a group in which students could create their own work. Her journey to create PSEN was almost accidental. While searching online for general film-related listservs, she stumbled across one related to Princeton. Shocked that she hadn’t heard of this organization — after all, she’d visited each and every booth at the Student Activities Fair — she e-mailed the director.

The director she e-mailed turned out to be a 2004 graduate, but he encouraged her to restart the group, which had become defunct. So Kurwa dropped everything else she was involved in and began to reestablish the organization as TigerTube: The Princeton Student Television Network.

As she was relaunching the group, Kurwa joined forces with two seniors who were creating a video website for the organization and described much of the first semester as various interested people “finding each other.” In the spring semester, she oversaw the production of a short film called “Tools.”

This fall, PSEN worked with Rockefeller College to organize events and gain publicity. A technical filmmaking workshop, run through Rocky, introduced students to different aspects of filmmaking and editing. PSEN has also become involved with The Rocky College Student Film Festival and said it plans to make what was once a college-focused event a University-wide opportunity.

PSEN’s programming is also expanding dramatically. After running a screenwriting contest this winter, it is producing another short film, “The Cassandra Project.” In addition, work is beginning on a short television show. With episodes of about 20 minutes each, “ ‘The Precept’ will follow the comedic clashes among a group of students inside and outside of a humanities precept,” Kurwa said. Additional programming will include a sports commentary called “That’s Debatable” as well as an individual talk show.

PSEN will feature all of this on a new, Hulu-style website which will soon be going live. The website will also include channels for different student organizations to include content including trailers created by performing arts groups.

PSEN’s content is student-created and aims to engage even those who have no previous film experience. For instance, each episode of “The Precept” will have a different director. Kurwa described the group’s goal as threefold: It aims to bring together students who are interested in all aspects of the entertainment industry, to give them the opportunity to learn and develop new skills and to provide a place for them to showcase the work that they produce.

Film can be experienced alone, but Princeton’s various film groups offer ample opportunities to engage with a community of students sharing common interests. Whether it’s seeing a midnight movie at the Garden Theatre, discussing an independent film with Subtitles or becoming involved with the production process through PSEN, there are plenty of interesting ways to enjoy movies beyond watching the Oscars.