The World Cinema Club, run by Spanish teacher Sra. Muñoz has shown movies for around 15 years and has pioneered its legacy as one of the longest running school clubs with the most members. On Oct. 16 it showed “Pinocchio” as the movie of the month in the Library after school, attracting many students. The World Cinema Club aims to explore culture through film and international movies, showing movies from all over the world.
The club shows movies monthly and these screenings have become a tradition for cinema lovers and for students in World Language classes who can receive extra credit for attending.
“The World Cinema Club was a decision that the students from the Hispanic Cinema Class took, they created the club and asked me to be the sponsor and it has been around 15 years that I have been in charge of the club,” Silvia Muñoz said.
With many students enjoying the last movie that was shown, “7 Cajas,” in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, attendance increased for the screening of the next movie, “Pinocchio.” The action movie in Spanish welcomed students from several language classes and allowed them to learn about different cultures through cinema.
“The best part about the Cinema Club is when I see students find out about a type of movie that they did not know existed and when I see that they enjoy the movie and learn about the cultures of other students,” Muñoz said.
As the lights dimmed, students enjoyed pizza and were immersed into the world of Pinocchio, the movie chosen for the Italian Heritage Month.
“I love the variety of the movies that Sra. Muñoz picks for us because they are all for different countries and they show the perspectives of different countries through movies,” junior Ellie Rodriguez said.
According to Muñoz, the movies chosen each month are usually according to what is being celebrated at school, so most of the time the movies shown are international, which few students have seen before.
“The process of picking the movie is ideally that the students recommend them to me since the club started being about the hispanic cinema class, but the other World Language teachers and I realized the scope was too narrow and as the school population diversified we realized that we need to amplify the topics or else it would be too limited. Every month I usually pick movies according to the month and also get help from the other World Language teachers to decide which ones are appropriate to show,” Muñoz said.
Many students have been going to the screenings every month and think its a great way to earn extra credit points and learn about different cultures.
“I’ve been going to the movies since freshman year and I really like how diverse they are and how they are in different languages. I think that she does a great job choosing the movies and that they are all very entertaining,” junior Anna Meyer said.
