movie night

As a continuation of our conversation night with our students, we held our first English movie night. It was quite a production, let me tell you. It began with a friend loaning me a projector. Well, I hooked up my computer and nothing happened. I spent the better part of my Sunday pleading with the computer and projector to communicate with one another. I did everything I knew how to do, but NOTHING. So, I called two of my students to get them involved in this mess. They came over and knew less than I did. In fact, one of them said, “well, you’re just supposed to hook it up and it’s supposed to work.” Yes, thank you for the highly technical advice! So, then we commissioned another student to bring her DVD player. Her husband came and we got it working, then all the sudden, the cable that connected the player to the projector decided to start causing problems. Then, we commissioned yet another student to bring his DVD player. Of course, we forgot to mention the kind of cable needed, and he brought the wrong thing. Really we just needed the cable anyway! So, then he went back home (luckily he lives in the neighborhood) and returned to save the day with the correct wire! We were in business finally!

We showed the movie Crash! We figured it would be a good film for discussion. It certainly was. Our students thought it was powerful and great. They had lots of interesting things to say about it. They also had lots of questions about it. The major idea that came out of the film from their point of view was that violence is everywhere. They also commented on the fact that they idealize America. We talked about how people have these ideas about what America is and that life in America is “easy.” Cape Verdeans have this image of the states as some great wonderland. We talked about racism in America and the class system. They agreed that they really don’t have an idea about what America is “really” like. I thought it was a wonderful way to start a discussion!

Any suggestions for our next film night????