Shane Sweeting and Erik Bachman in London (above)
May 11, 2020 - The Mariposa Arts Council is piloting a Virtual Film Club program designed to promote conversation and community in the midst of social distancing. The film club will feature weekly lists of streamable films (available for view, rent or buy on Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu, or iTunes) and discussion prompts, curated by Erik Bachman and Shane Sweeting. Film lists are available to the public through www.mariposaartscouncil.org/filmclub or on the Mariposa Arts Council’s Facebook page.
Bachman holds a doctoral degree in Literature with an emphasis in film and recently took a professor position at Merced Community College; Sweeting is an experienced writer and literature critic and ran an art house cinema in Santa Cruz prior to moving back to her hometown in Mariposa.
They say, “Our hope is that these films give us not only something to entertain or challenge us, but also an opportunity to reaffirm our ties to each other in these trying times. To that end, we’ll be including some questions regarding each movie in a given week’s list in the hopes that these queries prompt us to work through what these movies can perhaps offer us as we hunker down alone together.”
Screen from Mother (above)
As an additional participation option, Bachman and Sweeting will facilitate bi-weekly virtual film discussions through Zoom video conferencing. The first session is scheduled for Sunday, May 24, 2020 at 8 p.m. and will focus on prompts from the film Mother (2009; dir. Bong Joon-ho; South Korea - please note this film is a thriller and may contain strong content for some viewers) from Week 4’s list “Mama Said Knock You Out - Films on Motherhood.”
Interested participants should email Daisy at phillips@mairposaartscouncil.org before Saturday, May 23 to receive a Zoom Meeting link and password, available on a first-come first-served basis.
The Arts Council, is an incorporated not-for-profit organization, created to promote and support all forms of the cultural arts, for all ages, throughout Mariposa County and is supported in part by the County of Mariposa, the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, and the California Arts Council, a state agency.
Source: Mariposa County Arts Council
