Farewell to the Calvary Film Society

On May 13, 2016, the Calvary Film Society screened its final film for the 2015-2016 season, The Shootist, as part of the theme "First & Last." Incidentally, it was also my last film night. I have been a member of the Film Society for four years--all of high school--and even wrote up a post about it in 2013, "The Film Society: Culture Made." To commemorate my parting and having written about my introduction to it, I find it only fitting to share my parting words with the greatest thing about Calvary Christian High School:

I remember going to my very first Calvary Film Society meeting. The film was The Birds. The whole week leading up to it, black birds were abound, circling CCHS. It was an uncanny connection, to say the least. Usually these birds resemble the death of something, but in October 2012 they signaled the beginning of my involvement with the most formative extracurricular activity for me during high school.

It was more than just a club. It is a society that makes one think intellectually about a film--not a movie: cinema--as art, and forces you to consider media from a spiritual, philosophical, and critical perspective. No film confirmed that more than Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life, Mr. Jon Seals's swan song.

At the beginning of my junior year, Mr. Bohlander approached me about serving as the President of the Calvary Film Society (Student Representative, publicly). He, Mrs. Johnson, and Mr. Perkins explained this was not a usual position. They only appointed someone as such only if they saw it fit to, and if there was a true love, a passion for film--the last one to fill it was Matt Voor who has since graduated from the FSU Film School. I happily accepted the position.

Since then, I have helped organize the (quasi-)monthly film nights, assisted with film selection, and some other things. Amongst those, I was blessed enough to be able to lead three discussions, my own pick--Noah--on March 2015 (in retrospect, I am surprised that that made it into the CFS canon--thank you, Sponsors, for your faith in me!). This year I was able to lead two. In January, we talked about horror and style through Jaws, the first blockbuster, and in April, I led a discussion on the 1959 Journey to the Center of the Earth and talked about its place smack dab in the middle of film history. This year I have also given introductions to most of the films. Doing this has made me a more mature film aficionado and more knowledgeable on how to best communicate with an audience.

As the credits roll on my last night, I should reflect on the three pictured items. Every meeting, I have carried around a blue notebook. This notebook, originally purposed for Spanish class on virtual school, has since become synonymous with CFS. I have recorded my Oscar predictions in it, have written notes of films, and have preserved almost all past Film Society discussion notes in its pages (back when we printed them). This will always be a token of what the Calvary Film Society was to me.

Beside it are parting gifts from the three people who gave me this leadership opportunity. They signed a colorful "picture documentary" (as Mr. Perkins called it) on the work of Wes Anderson, The Wes Anderson Collection. I will treasure it and study it, using it to look deeper at Anderson's films. To me, this represents what the Calvary Film Society always is.

Finally, there is the Ticket Stub Diary. Should my path not change. I will be going to the cineplex quite often for the next several years. Ever since 2012 I have saved my ticket stubs (unless they curiously disappear) and I will continue to do so. But it will also become a collection of the films I will talk about and write about intellectually, critically, etc. For me, this represents the legacy of the Calvary Film Society in my life.

For the past seven years, the Calvary Film Society has affected so many students and has brought back student and faculty alumni. With the other founder returning and an ever-growing collection of student patrons of this art, I do not anticipate the end anytime soon. I will not be as regular as I have been the past four years (for obvious reasons) but I hope that through my tenure I have been able to affect you all by a t least a fraction of how the Calvary Film Society has affected me. Thank you for the discussions, thank you for the opportunities, and thank you for everything else.

Until next time, "I'll see you at the movies."