Bah, humbug! Film Societies Suck!

[Nate6]

Or at least the one in my town does. I have recently become informed that one exists in my one-horse county, so I tried to join (they are apparently always looking for new members). It would discuss different films, actors, genres upon meeting every week or every two weeks or something like that. Anyway, I went down to see if I could sign up, only to be told by the society's president/chairman person that I'm too young to join.

What? Too young to join? I am 16, you know. I asked if they would be watching any X/NC-17-rated films, and if that was the reason. No, was his reply, except for possibly Midnight Cowboy (I proceeded to tell him that MC was no longer rated NC-17, which surprised him). He told me that at 16, my tastes are too immature to be in a film society. Too immature!

I could have punched him. Too immature? I'm possibly the biggest film fan around the town, and if not I'm certainly in the top 10, and because of my age, I'm too immature. What a pile of horsecrap! Clear-cut age discrimination, right? Well, unfortunately they're a club and they can pretty much exclude whoever they want. But oh man, it makes me mad...

[BakeTheMooCow]

There's a film club in my city too. I have no interest in joining. Discussing movies is fine on the internet, because I can come here whenever I want and leave whenever I want. But going regularly to some place, any kind of schedule... I can't imagine sitting in a room full of people discussing and analysing and dissecting movies endlessly. Itd be torture.

About your rant, its not his place to say your tastes are immature.. but having an age limit on a film society seems sensible.

[Nate6]

Originally posted by BakeTheMooCow
About your rant, its not his place to say your tastes are immature.. but having an age limit on a film society seems sensible.

I understand what you're saying but there must be some other way to determine a person's film knowledge other than age. Maybe allow the person to come for a night and see what he contributes. Trust me, I'm by far the youngest person wanting to join, it wouldn't be a big problem for them not to have an age limit.

[BakeTheMooCow]

I guess you're right. Allowing younger people to join would probably be for their own good. I don't know about not having an age limit. They have to draw the line somewhere or they won't feel comfortable discussing certain movies with everyone.

Do they have any special priveleges like preview screenings or free tickets? The film club in my city doesn't. Anyway, you have a great place to discuss movies so I wouldn't be so disappointed.. :)

[Nate6]

Originally posted by BakeTheMooCow
Anyway, you have a great place to discuss movies so I wouldn't be so disappointed.. :)

You're damn right about that. I don't care if Roger Ebert is the host of my local group, nothing will ever beat JoBlo.com as a film society, as we get to talk about anything we want related to film with a great atmosphere and community. But we never get to discuss face-to-face here, we can't "take the argument outside" if you know what I mean. That's my real only reason for wanting to join the other one. JoBlo will always be my film discussion home. :)

They do have special screenings of rare films but I don't believe they're free (although that would be nice).

About the age limit, you are right, they should have one, but maybe something along the lines of 13 or 14. I think that by the age of 16, anyone who would actually want to join the society would be mature enough to handle it.

[Mick]

Originally posted by Nate6

About the age limit, you are right, they should have one, but maybe something along the lines of 13 or 14. I think that by the age of 16, anyone who would actually want to join the society would be mature enough to handle it.


You've got to draw the line somewhere. If I was part of said film society, I wouldn't want a load of 16 year olds coming in ruining it for me; 16 year olds like myself and chums of a few years back.

It's their society, so like you said, they can pretty much please themselves. While I'm sure there would be plenty of 16 year olds who may well enhance their meetings, there would be a fair number who'd ruin it for others. It may not be nice to tar everyone with the same brush, but to just let anyone in would probably be far more trouble than it'd be worth.

Perhaps they've had problems with younger members before? If I think about the film "discussions" we had at school, for instance, that's not quite what I'd be looking for in a film society.

As for 13 or 14 year olds... I'd ban the little blighters from the cinema if it were up to me :D

[Nate6]

Originally posted by Mick
Perhaps they've had problems with younger members before? If I think about the film "discussions" we had at school, for instance, that's not quite what I'd be looking for in a film society.

No, it's a brand new club, or not brand new but about two months old and it currently only has its original members, a bunch of middle-aged guys.

As I said before, no one even close to being as young as me has tried to get into the club, in fact, their membership drive has been fairly unsuccessful. The immature 16-year-olds all have better stuff to do than go discuss film, trust me.

[Annie Hall]

Originally posted by Mick
As for 13 or 14 year olds... I'd ban the little blighters from the cinema if it were up to me :D

Ahh, Mick...do not judge people by their age. Some 13 and 14 year olds know more about film than many adults. ;)

In reference to the "immature" comment, I think it was just an unfortunate choice of words. I understand the society not wanting teenagers pouring in and ruining their atmosphere...but labeling them as "immature" is just bad wording on their part.

[walking meatloaf]

Atleast at joblo there's a wide assortment of ages and opinion's,those film society guy's don't sound very open-minded if they wouldn't let you join just because you're 16.He told me that at 16, my tastes are too immature to be in a film society. Too immature! So did you call him a stinky poo-poo head,stick your tongue out and storm away stamping your feet?:D

[A.J. Hakari]

I made three attempts to join the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS), all of which weren't met with much success. The first time I was turned down was because when I had my Angelfire site, I couldn't archive my reviews. Understandable, no debating about that. The second time (when I moved to my current site and could archive my critiques), they mentioned an age limit, and as I was 16 at the time, my application was either sent to the bottom of the list or flat out turned down at all. I reluctantly accepted this, only because they had added critics to the OFCS at a younger age than 16 and gave me no information that mentioned anything about having to be 17 and over. The third time, when I just sent my application in for the hell of it, they said they wouldn't accept me because they were over their members limit. Keep in mind this was a good, oh, two, three, or four weeks after Attempt #2. No forewarnings about an impending cutoff for new applicants, and nothing on their site saying that they wouldn't be accepting new members. After that, I just threw my hands up in the air and said "This ain't worth it."

In the midst of it all, I e-mailed my own sleep deprivation-inspired rant about the mistreatment of teen critics to every OFCS member on the list. I still feel like breaking out into a Dobby the House Elf-style session of self-inflicted punishment every time I think about that. Bad idea, A.J.. Bad idea...

Now, I could care less. I just want to watch and write without making it a big deal, and doing that is just peachy for me.