I like to think of the film clubs I’ve helped create as small communities built around movies: people who come together regularly to share, enjoy and discuss a film.
Trend-spotters will tell you that the movie theater is a dinosaur on the brink of extinction, to be replaced by some as-yet-unavailable hybrid of Internet streaming video, high-speed broadband, satellite video on-demand, hi-def digital home theaters – and probably some piece of technology that hasn’t been invented yet.

But I maintain there’s no experience like watching a movie with a roomful of people in a theater. Even if they’re all strangers, it’s still a communal situation, an experience enhanced by the presence of other human beings sharing the same period of time and same work of cinematic art with you.

I’ve been hosting film clubs for almost a decade – first as a guest host at other groups, then as producer and host of my own series. The Emelin Film Club at the Emelin Theater in Mamaroneck, NY, has been running since 2005 and has been gratifyingly popular right from the start.

The principal is simple: I want the audience to come to the films without preconceptions. So the audience doesn’t know ahead of time what the films will be.

Hopefully, this mirrors the experience I have as a critic at a film festival: walking into a movie not knowing anything about the movie, beyond the title and, perhaps, the director and cast. In this era of media overload – where it seems as if everyone knows everything about every film before it’s ever released – it’s rare that you’re able to see a movie with a blank slate and enjoy it on its own merits, minus advance hype and spin.

Each film club offering is followed by a discussion with the audience, often (but not always) featuring someone involved with the film we’ve just seen. To me, the important aspect is the chance for the community to discuss among itself the movie and what it meant to them.

The film club blog page will offer members the opportunity to weigh in with their own opinions of the films they see. I hope you’ll take the opportunity to let me know what you think.

For information about tickets to the Emelin Film Clubs, click herehttp://www.emelin.org/film.html

To post a response about the films you see at the Emelin Film Club, click here: http://hollywoodandfine.com/fcemelin1/