Interview With the September Club of the Month: MariFilms!

According to Congress, “MariFilms has shown an exceptional commitment to improving student life at Marianopolis by hosting popular movie screenings every AP, by intense (and sometimes odd) recruitment efforts online, by creating an active online space for discussion for all members, and by openly collaborating and providing feedback for Congress-Club initiatives.” 

Vanessa Nseir, a lead executive of the renowned MariFilms club who won the September Congress Club of the Month Award, was asked a few questions regarding her and her team’s recent endeavours. 

Hi Vanessa! Can you tell us a bit about what MariFilms has done in September?

Hi Luc! This month, we hosted an introductory meeting, where we talked a lot and did a super-fun Kahoot. Our goal was to make the activity interactive, and so we spent a lot of time having the members meet each other. The following weeks, we had four movie screenings during AP, where the choice of movies were based on recommendations from club members who voted on which movie they wanted to see. I think we had like 40 people at the American Psycho screening, everyone was screaming, and it was so fun. 

Oh yeah, we also had a preparation and the creation of groups for our eventual short film making, in addition to being extremely active on Instagram (we have a group chat with like 130 people in there and another one with 40 people, just for spam). Oh yeah, I almost forgot, we also had a screenwriting workshop!

Wow, impressive. Now, why do you think your club deserves the September Club of the Month award?

Marifilms was very active, and we tried to make it very fun, include people, and ask their opinions. Last year, they had one meeting and did not contact any of us again. We really wanted to make it, like, interactive– a place where people get to share their passion for films. We spend a lot of time being active through Instagram and we had meetings every AP. 

We want to make people want to be there. We planned everything out, and we realized that we could use everyone’s strengths to our benefits. For example, we used my strength of like, talking to people or like being extroverted to animate workshops, and Melissa’s good organizational skills to organize events and stuff. Matteo is a very effective helper and he’s always there when we need him. Eliott takes care of all the finances too. We’re very close to each other, and we try our best to make it fun.

Ooh, cool. What are your plans for the rest of the semester?

Uh, we’re planning on going to a film festival as a group later in the semester. We want to have movie nights on Wednesdays, movie outings perhaps. We’re going to have a short film festival at the end of the semester with the projects each group creates. Last semester, we invited a film teacher to judge the films, hopefully this semester it will be the same format. We want to invite guest speakers, like Adam Reider who’s a filmmaker, but I also have connections with a director who was somewhat successful before. Matteo also knows an actor. Basically, we’re thinking of inviting people related to the film industry in general!

Obviously, we’ll continue AP screenings too. We’ve also seen some interest from members for a Twilight drinking game after school at some point.

Haha, alright. FInally, is there anything you want to say to your members, or co-executives?

You’re amazing. The whole MariFilms club is so cool. It’s such a fun atmosphere. They’re so amazing.

That’s all, Vanessa. Thank you so much for your time.

Congratulations, MariFilms!

Lastly, here are some answers to a survey done with MariFilms members about their award:

Share with us your experience with MariFilms so far.

“Very awesome and cool, club is fun to be in and the people are great!”

“FUN and INFORMATIVE”

“I love it!”

“Hella cool”

“IT SLAYED!”

Do you think MariFilms deserved Club of the Month?

“Yes, the amount of advertisement, the activities and the announcements for the activities show the immense amount of effort put into the club by its executives.”

“I think MariFIlms deserved club of the month because they were consistent with club meetings, and the execs are really nice people.”

“Yes, because we are simply better. That and our initiative make it so we’re always fast for activities like the bake sale.”

“Yes, because the people are so fun and outgoing and we always do something interesting.”

“Yes! Cuz we just the best.”