At the beginning of the year, Michael Lindle, founder of The Reel Discussion podcast, fellow Elder senior and myself re-started the Elder Movie Club again with the help of Mr. Greg Dickman and Mr. Spencer Kandra.
A lot of Elder students are big fans of movies, so there needed to be a way for students to share their love of this art form. This is what The Movie Club provides, opportunities for Elder students to go see movies together.
So far, there have been four movie outings. These movies have been Halloween, 2001: A Space Odyssey, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, and most recently, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. The most recent outing had the best turn out yet with around 30 people attending when normally around 15 people make it.
This is very good news for the club, and I, as one of the officers, hope that we can continue to get numbers like this or even more. Part of this turnout was through more recruiting efforts and Mr. Kandra, Mr. Dickman, and Lindle’s reenactment of the famous scene from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly that appeared on ENN.
To get more insights on the club, I went and interview the other founding members of the club.
The first person I went and talked to was Mr. Dickman. He stated that his reasoning for helping with the club is that “I am passionate about movies. I also saw this as an opportunity to get to know students in a different context outside of a classroom setting.”
It is fun for him to talk with students and hear their 
thoughts about the movies after we watch them while also allowing him to connect with students in a more friendly setting. Mr. Dickman has been a big fan of the outings so far stating, “They’ve been awesome! It has been so much fun viewing classic movies on the big screen, movies that in all cases of the ones we’ve shown, I never got to see on the big screen.”
Like Mr. Dickman, I haven’t seen any of these movies in theatres, so the ability to do that adds to the experience as a whole. Although the outings have been good so far, Mr. Dickman hopes “MORE students start attending! We deliberately pick classic movies that students have not necessarily seen in order to challenge people to go to a different movie they otherwise wouldn’t watch.” The chance to watch these classics will hopefully broaden their horizon and make them want to watch more classics. Out of all the screenings, Mr. Dickman’s favorite so far has been Halloween because it is one of his favorite horror movies and favorites overall.
Next, I went and talked to Mr. Kandra. His reasoning for helping with the club is that he loves movies and wants to get more involved with the school and students, which is why he thought “it would be a great way to do both.” So far he believes “that the outings have been ok. I feel as if they could be better though. There is a core of guys who come but we want to expand that to all students. We have even had alumni and dads come.”
He wants people to know that this club is for a community of people who enjoy movies and having a good time, not just “movie nerds”. For him, “It is hard to tell what could be better. Some say they would come if it’s on the weekend. Some say it depends on the movie. It is hard to pinpoint what could be better about it, which is what makes everyone’s feedback truly special.” His
favorite so far was the most recent screening, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. “It hasn’t been my favorite movie shown, but the people who showed up, watched, and talked about the movie made me tremendously enjoy it.” Like Mr. Kandra, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly has been my favorite so far, but unlike him, it has been my favorite out of the movies shown so far.
Finally, I interviewed co-president Michael Lindle. He helped create the club because he “thought it would be a fun way for people who like movies or even people trying to get into movies to watch some classics and maybe even step outside their comfort zone from what they normally watch.”
To help improve the club, he hopes that we can get some more guys there. “Right now its about 20 people per meeting. A lot of guys are telling my they will come, but I am not seeing them, which is disappointing.” Like Mr. Kandra and myself, his favorite was the most recent one, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. He is a big fan of it and the good turnout because of the ENN promotion helped make it a good time.
Regarding the future of the club, I hope that more and more people continue to show up, and it continues to grow and become a big thing at Elder in the following years. Mr. Dickman hopes that it continues to grow and that students will “step outside their cinematic comfort zones and watch something that might be challenging to them since there are more movies out there besides Fast and the Furious and the Marvel franchise (and I like a lot of the Marvel movies, don’t get me wrong).”
Mr. Kandra hopes that the club can be more than just a student body event; “Faculty, staff, alumni, and dads are all welcome. It’s just guys going to the movies and having a good time.” Finally, Lindle hopes that we can continue with a meeting per month to close out his senior year along with finding someone to pick up the reigns of the club because “The Movie Club is definitely good for the school.” 
From an inside source, myself, we plan to hold another meeting at the end of this month to watch Terminator 2: Judgement Day while also giving students the opportunity to watch the first Terminator movie in Mr. Dickman’s room before the date of Terminator 2 (more details to come soon).
