Last semester California Lutheran University welcomed a new club on campus, the Movie Club. The Movie Club meets every other Friday in Richter Hall in the Ahmanson Science Center. The club is run by movie lovers and advocates Chloe Rodriguez, who is the president of the club, and Ben Sottile, the vice president of the club.

“I started it last semester because I think it should have been done, and no one had done it yet. So why not me” Rodriguez said.  

The Movie Club watched an assortment of movies last semester, including “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “Hocus Pocus” in October for Halloween. “The Nightmare Before Christmas” was the first movie they showed at the first meeting last semester. They also showed “Star Trek” and then ended off the semester watching “Elf” for the holiday season. 

“We discuss which ones we want to do and which ones are the best. Like if we are doing a Marvel movie we try to figure out what would be the best introductory movie. We try to find the best representations of a genre,” Sottile said. 

At the beginning of this semester the Movie Club hosted an Outdoor Movie Night in Kingsmen Park to watch “The Incredibles.” They also watched “Valentine’s Day” to celebrate Valentine’s Day in February. This semester they have also watched “Jurassic Park” and most recently showing “Jumanji-Welcome to the Jungle.” Rodriguez and Sottile work together to pick what movies they want shown on Movie club nights. 

“Ben and I are really big movie people, so we already know movies like the back of our hand, and we are pretty specific about our genre too. I don’t really like to watch horror or thriller so I won’t show horror or thriller but we are trying to expand what type of movies we are thinking of to get more people” Rodriguez said. 

Rodriguez’s love for movies started in middle school. She would come home after school and watch movies with her family and collect DVD’s with her mom. 

“We had a whole DVD collection of our favorite types of movies. Then when I discovered Marvel, I loved the Marvel movies and I became such a big geek. For the longest time I’ve always loved movies and it’s really hard to meet other people who watch as many movies as Ben and I do. I wanted to be able to share this with everyone else” Rodriguez said.

The Movie Club creates posters for their meeting and advertises through hanging them up around campus and on their Instagram page which is, @clumovieclub. These posters provide information on when and where the club is meeting, and what movies will be shown. They also provide popcorn at club meetings for everyone who attends. 

“Right now we have a google doc, Chloe first listed a bunch of movies she wanted to see, then I go on the document and either accept it or reject the ones that are on there. Then from that she will pick the next movie.” Sottile said. 

The latest movie they have shown was “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle ” on March 11th at 6 p.m. in Richter Hall. The next meeting will take place on March 25th. 

“We had a club fair a couple weeks ago, and we had a table and we had tons of people sign up their emails so I’ve been sending emails and seeing who comes” Rodriguez said. 

Last semester Movie Club only had three to four members at each meeting, but with club fair and the outdoor movie night more people have been attending the meetings. 

“I know we’ve grown since then. We did the club fair this semester, and I thought I was doing pretty well promoting the club” Sottile said.