Into Film Clubs
Find out everything you need to know about starting an Into Film Club.
Our March leader of the month is Andrew Till from Morecambe library in Lancashire, who runs a weekly film club for his local community.
I've been running the film club on Saturdays at Morecambe library for around a year and half now and it's been a learning curve with plenty of ups and downs.
Being in a library has allowed us to do a number of spin-off events and accompanying groups, these have included a group for adults with learning difficulties which was run by my colleague Emma until recently and a session where our Lego Club joined forces with Film Club leading to us showing 'The LEGO Movie' followed by a lego building session, which proved a big success with both children and parents. I have to be honest, I wasn't sure about The LEGO Movie when I first heard of it, but now, it blows me away - there's so much detail, and even after several watches you still see jokes and bits you missed previously.
We do support learning in an unofficial way, this is most often done by backing up the reading groups. We have 'Holes' and 'Millions' on our to watch list both of which are based on fantastic books. We have also linked up with a local group called Unique Kidz who run holiday clubs for children with learning difficulties and during the breaks from school we try to link up with the themes they are working on and show a relevant film. So far these have included 'Inside Out' and 'Paddington.' The Unique Kidz members really benefit from having time to socialise away from their usual setting in a safe and friendly environment.
One thing I enjoy is being able to introduce films that some people may not have seen before. Last year we introduced 'Back To the Future' to our members, tieing in with the anniversary, and more recently we showed 'Paper Planes' which one person said was the best film they'd seen in some time. It's really good on a Saturday afternoon when we can provide children and parents / grandparents the chance to see something new, that they may have missed when it first came out.
Other films our members have enjoyed have been Night at the Museum, which really gets children enthused about history; Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the original film rather than the recent remake; Mouse Hunt, which the kids loved due to its slapstick comedy feel, and of course, Frozen. In fact, Frozen got us off the ground with the club, and has become a firm favourite amongst our members.
If I were to give future and fellow Into Film Club leaders one piece of advice, it'd be this: enjoy yourself. There are plenty of films available through Into Film and having the opportunity to share them with your group is an amazing feeling. Don't always stick with the modern favourites, let them see some of the films you enjoyed when you were their age.
