Salt Lake Community College is currently hosting a classic film series in the screening room at South City Campus.
SLCC film professor Stephen Williams hosts the series, which consists of a film screening followed by a discussion on why the film is considered to be a classic. This semester, Williams focuses on iconic movies of the 1990s.
Words like “postmodernism” are thrown around as Williams digs into the philosophy and significance of the film in question.
“That’s why I teach film, because I care about talking about philosophy,” Williams says. “I write and make films myself and that’s what attracts me to film.”
This year’s series focuses on iconic films of the ’90s and stays in line with Williams’s tradition of examining the best cinema of a particular decade from prior movie series.
“We’ve done this [series] for maybe five semesters, so we’ve covered a lot of decades,” Williams says.
Williams says that until this year he didn’t feel movies from the ’90s were old enough to be considered “classics” yet. Eventually, he realized a lot of students were born during the decade, so “we do have classic films that were made in the ’90s.”
The selection for this year’s movies was simple; they had to still be relevant in today’s world.
“They had to be films that are still talked about,” Williams says.
The first film of the series, “Pulp Fiction” was shown Sept. 26. The screening room was nearly filled to capacity.
“No film is more talked about than ‘Pulp Fiction,’” Williams explains. “These are films that have stuck in our memory.”
Just as important to the event as the movie itself was the discussion that followed. Williams asked a slew of questions to the audience, ranging from what people thought of the movie, to what they think it’s impact on cinema has been over time.
With the professor’s guidance, the screening room fostered an environment for deep discussion from both first-time viewers and cinemaphiles alike.
“There was definitely a lot of deep thought happening in the room,” one student said after the event.
The remaining ’90s film series screenings include “Clueless” Oct. 10, “Goodfellas” Oct. 24 and “Rushmore” Nov. 7. The screenings begin at 6 p.m. Tickets are free and parking passes are offered to those in attendance.
