I work with university/college students so this is pitched to students.

This could be adapted to suit your setting.

It would be great to here your experience of engaging with film and what has worked and what has not worked.

 

Engaging with films/movies

When using film it is important to consider a few things.

1)    What sort of films would people in college/Uni watch? Shrek maybe your favourite film of all time but it may not be as relevant for others or indeed contemporary or relevant.

2)    It is also good to be aware of not making too obvious a Christian connection with film choice.
It can be easy to think that the right thing to do as Christians is show a Christian film. Passion of the Christ or Bruce Almighty talk about Jesus and God but do they help people engage? Or do they put people off stepping over the door to view the film?

3)    Try to choose a film that will help you engage in discussion.
 Does the film question what it means to be human? Does it have a strong theme of hope?
 Could it be a film that looks at despair?

Discussion

Prep
Make sure you have got the DVD, TV/projector and sound system all set up in advance.
It sounds obvious but there has been plenty of ambience lost in the past  with people toiling with a projector for twenty minutes too late in the day.
Invite friends to a small group discussion.
It maybe you can have this in somebody’s flat, or in a small room in your college/Uni.
It would be good to be creative and thoughtful about the food/drink you provide.
Buy some nice crisps, popcorn and chocs. Make some smoothies, try and get people from Cu to make some cakes or treats and have this as people come in.
A boring looking lecture room with 2 packets of Pringles does not shout creativity.

Be active in welcoming people not from CU rather than bunching together with all the people from CU.

Introduce the event/night.

Have somebody from CU explain what is happening at the event.
1.    Thanks for coming – enjoy the food and drink
2.    We are watching ……….
3.    After the film we are going to have a discussion about the film led by Joe bloggs

Things to consider during the discussion
Engaging with film
It is good to think about an inductive approach to film in regards to discussion

1) Observation – What about the cinematography? What about the music? The voices?  Who are the different characters? What things stand out?

2) Interpretation – Why do certain things happen? What are the relationships in the film like?
What is the narrative telling us about life? Why do certain things happen in the way they do?

4)    Application – How does the narrative of this apply to us? How does it apply to life in general? How does this relate to the meta-narrative? Fall? Redemption? New hope?

We need to be careful that during the application stage of the discussion we don’t jump to making tenenious links with the gospel – for instance “it was interesting when that guy died in the crash – did you know Jesus died for you”.

It is good to help people see that the film is coming from a certain worldview.
It is good to compare this to our own Christian worldview and look at what questions arise.

Short films
It may be that you don’t have the time to do an evening event.
 You may apply what is above but use a short film instead – use a 10 minute film and get people discussing things over lunch.

Film societies
In addition to the above you could join a film society on campus. It is a good chance to meet people and to bring some of the tools we have spoken to the table.