House Film Societies: Mini Moguls of Movie Industry

New York has Greenwich Village for weird, farout movies and revivals, Cambridge has the Orson Welles, and Harvard has, well, its house film societies. From Mather House to North House, the popcorn flows and the movie shows almost every weekend night.

At the beginning of the year, the movie moguls in each house hold meetings to decide the coming year's schedule. Then, Hollywood Harvard-style meets in full, and the film societies lottery to determine which house gets which weekend slot in the Science Center.

And in the cutthroat world of film societies--where groups must struggle to break even at the end of the year--which weekend a film society draws can make a big difference. "The secret is a good film date," says John B. Mathers, who coordinates weekend use of Science Center lecture halls. "Yale Weekend is not a good weekend."

Running a film society is not a cheap proposition. A typical Science Center weekend alone runs an average of $80 for security and $150 for hired projectionists and up to $1000 for popular films. Even showing devo films in house dining halls can cost up to $300.

High Society

Since the competition can be fierce, film societies often tailor their approaches to correspond to a particular house's stereotype. Adams and Dunster Houses, for example, tend to show artsy and foreign films. "We don't show regular movies like The Graduate because we don't see the point of showing accessible movies," says Dunster film society President Mark Csikszentmihalyi '86.

Eliot House, on the other hand, tends to show "good old movies like Thin Man and Holiday Inn," says Clark Brown '86, president.

The Quincy House film society is unabashedly biased toward the blockbusters. "We avoid French and Italian movies that nobody's every heard of," says Trip A. Switzer '86. "We play the hits."

But Winthrop and Leverett House film societies go for the diversity. "We show the whole gamut of films, like Cary Grant and Walt Disney," says Thomas D. Young '86, president of Winthrop's film society.

This year the Kirkland House film society has decided to tackle its stereotype. "We are no longer stooping to bad Clint Eastwood movies," says film society organizer Geoffrey S. Gage '87.

The Oscars

The Mather and Kirkland mini-MGM's tie in the prize for the most embarrasing movie moment. Paul C. Gallagher '86, president of the Mather film society, recalls the group's most traumatic experience--spending $300 to show a Jack Nicholson film, The Passenger. Only four or five people showed up to see the movie and the society suffered a loss of $290 for that night.

And during reading period over at Kirkland Pictures, that house's film society beat Mather's for lowest attendance one night. "I remember one night we were showing The Blob" says Gage. "We went to set up and show the film. But nobody came, and five people were studying in the dining hall, so we left."

Audience-Grabbers

Perhaps the Oscar for the most sensational in film goes to Quincy's society for its 1980 season. During the showing of Animal House there, several students threw beer cans at the screen and damaged it. To raise money for repairs, the society decided to bring back an old tradition of showing the X-rated film Deep Throat during exam period.

Several female Quincy House residents tried to prevent the society from showing the pornographic movie, but students voted for Deep Throat by a three-to-one margin. The protesters then went to Harvard administrators, asking that they force the society not to show the movie. But although Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III asked the film society to not show the movie, the administrator refused to ban Deep Throat.

Under orders from a Massachusetts judge, two state detectives attended the first showing of the movie, seized the film reel, confiscated all money taken in for the showing, and arrested two film society members. All charges were eventually dropped, and the students were never prosecuted.

Since that incident, the bluest movie at Harvard has been at the level of The Blues Brothers.

In the past years, however, the movies just ain't what they used to be. "Movies used to rake in the bucks," says Leverett House film society president Michael A. Cohen '86. He says that one reason for the decline in movie attendance may be increased availability of videocassette machines.

Adams House film society president Elizabeth Buckley '87 says she has resorted to pleading to encourage people to attend showings of her society's films.

While film profits may not fund any springbreak trips to Acapulco, not all societies are having a unprofitable season. Csikszentmihalyi says that Dunster House has had a very successful semester, partly because it shows 13 films a semester--one every week--as opposed to the seven or eight per semester put on by the other societies.

Poster Perfect

Dunster film society puts up 250 posters for each movie. However, putting the posters up and having them stay up are two different matters, says Csikszentmihalyi. "Posters put up Thursday morning can be down by Thursday evening," adds Cohen.

Some societies have gone to great lengths to win the Battle of the Poster. Switzer says that once he recruited his roommate to put up posters. Quincy's agent overzealously pasted posters not only on kiosks and bulletin boards, but also on Science Center walls and the backs of chairs in lecture halls. Following his roommate's postering orgy, Switzer received a letter from University Hall threatening to fine the society $25 for repeat offenses.

Harvard buildings are not the only illegal spots society members have found for posters. "The Cambridge cops actually arrested someone last year for putting a poster up on a telephone pole," Switzer says.

But beyond the innate glamour of the industry, two things little known to the man on the street encourage these amateur Loews to enter the world of cinema. "It's the free pizza and free passes to all the house movies," says Gallagher.