Free films? Two words that just might cause the heart to skip a beat, as it seems most everyone is a film buff these days. With the soaring ticket prices at any local cineplex, who wouldn’t give that a second look? Well, free films are just one of the many social events organized by the Cinema Studies Student Union (CINSSU) at U of T. Though based at Innis College, the group definitely has the attention of the entire campus, not to mention movie lovers throughout the local community.
A completely student-run organization, CINSSU, the Cinema Studies course union, has been the foundation of the Free Friday Films program on campus for the last 20 years (it’s worth noting that the Cinema Studies program itself has only been around for 30 years). Seeing as it is the link between the Cinema Studies program and its students, CINSSU helps develop future grad programs and discusses the current curriculum and course readings with the program’s faculty.
Apart from this, the group often functions as a medium to negotiate program-related issues at the administrative level. And of course they organize film-related academic and social events as well.
Enriching the Cinema Studies curriculum are events such as panel discussions and interaction with prominent and independent filmmakers, such as the CINSSU event Reel World-students interested in the film world get the opportunity to meet and chat with those in the field, such as a recent session with local filmmaker Clement Virgo, who discussed his sexually provocative new movie Lie With Me.
Those students involved in CINSSU come away with curatorial, archival, and programming skills through screening and selecting films and organizing the group’s events. Aside from the Free Friday Films, they also help arrange children’s movies for U of T’s Family Planning Centre.
“CINSSU has been developing consistently over the years, using different ways to create outreach to not just the program students, but also the broader community at hand and the film community,” says Cinema Studies program director, professor Charlie Keil, about the open-door policy that CINSSU has established.
While the majority of CINSSU members are studying film, and their events tend to cater to those in the program, that doesn’t mean they’re exclusive to only Cinema Studies students. In fact, CINSSU is one of the more welcoming and visible departmental course unions on campus.
“Since we’re about films, we have something that everyone can be enthusiastic about,” says former president Shalyn Oswald (she recently resigned her post, and Matthew Seiden has since taken over).
A fan of the Free Friday Films night agreed: “It’s right on campus and next to Robarts. It’s very convenient on Fridays,” he commented before heading into a recent screening of Old Boy at Innis.
Thanks to their posters all over campus and good word of mouth, it seems most students on campus are familiar with CINSSU’s Friday screenings. Almost every Friday night at 7 pm, the lights go down at Innis Town Hall and this long-running CINSSU tradition comes to life.
“We have the resource of screening in 35mm instead of digital projection so we can screen in the intended format,” Oswald explains (film purists, you can breathe easier!).
The matter of which films are screened is also considered by CINSSU. While they do take requests, they are selective, trying to find a balance between artier hits like Sin City and more esoteric foreign films like 3-Iron or anime like Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds (a classic by anime great Hayao Miyazaki, who is becoming better known on these shores following the Oscar-winning animated film Spirited Away).
“Don’t expect to see a Meg Ryan film here,” Oswald jokes.
CINSSU also handles occasional sneak previews of big studio movies in advance of their release in theatres-lucky students have caught Alexander, Gothika, Starsky and Hutch, and Underworld, among others.
But the Friday films remain CINSSU’s most popular offering for those who want to save a few bucks for the weekend or just wishing to wind down a long week of studying. Upcoming they’ve got a great double bill of Ed Wood and Lost in La Mancha (Dec. 2), and closing out the term will be Hong Kong master Wong Kar-Wai’s transcendental futuristic epic 2046 (Dec. 9).
For a complete schedule of the Free Friday Films as well as more info about the group, check out the CINSSU website at www.utoronto.ca/fff.
