Have you been asked to name your Letterboxd top four movies? Or maybe you’ve delved into camera angles and lighting in a film class? Perhaps you’ve even been featured as an extra in a student film. If so, you’re likely one of the many students at Kenyon who have found ways to become involved in film culture on campus.
Miah Rodríguez-Hedeen ’28 is vice president of Blow Up Film Club. Also known as Blow Up, the group screens classic and foreign films every Monday night. She discussed Kenyon students’ appreciation for cinema, saying, “I love … the diversity of what [film] means to people. Some people are … film majors and making their own films, and then there are also people like me who enjoy watching and discussing, and then there are people who … just like to watch a movie and that is also so cool.” She added that the student interest in movies lays the groundwork for an engaging post-screening discussion with the audience.
Rodríguez-Hedeen said, “It’s really been fun to promote … things that can lead to really thought-provoking discussion and ways of thinking about the world and stuff that maybe people haven’t been exposed to before.” When asked about Blow Up’s contribution to the film culture at Kenyon, she said, “We like to contribute by making a space for… weirdness in film.”
However, Blow Up is not the only club where students gather for a shared love of cinema. CineArts, which hosts a film screening every Wednesday night, takes student suggestions for what to show during its Sunday meetings. Club president Zoey Rockoff ’26 said, “[CineArts] just provides for people … a low commitment space” for anyone to come. Rockoff recounted how she became involved in CineArts her sophomore year because she wanted to see “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure” on the big screen. “I came to a meeting, I pitched it and since then I’ve just been hooked,” she reminisced. Earlier this year, CineArts also hosted its own shadowcast of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” for Halloween.
The reach of Kenyon’s film clubs extends beyond their typical film screenings. Blow-Up collaborated with Eastern European Club to show “Ida” on Sept. 15 and “Green Border” on Nov. 17. CineArts collaborated with Kenyon Students for Justice in Palestine (KSJP) to screen “No Other Land” on Nov. 15.
In the future, Kenyon’s film clubs and film culture will likely continue to grow. KSJP hopes to screen “Palestine 36” and bring in a filmmaker to show their documentary. Rodríguez-Hedeen commented that Blow Up hopes to explore the process of filmmaking, expanding their current focus on film to include more of what happens behind the scenes. Rockoff said, “Hopefully, in the future … CineArts will be at the center of the community and a place [for] people from all over Kenyon’s campus to get involved in any way they see fit.”
Kenyon’s film clubs might vary in genre and style, but they all share a common admiration for the ability of the College’s film culture to unite its students.