Upon walking into class, Film Study students are likely to hear Mr. Munson update the room on whatever he watched over the weekend, with reviews ranging from “meh” to “very good.” They may also hear about the progress of his YouTube channel, debate the uses of artificial intelligence in film, and share their own weekend viewings. It is a classroom characterized not only by watching films, though that is how much of the time is spent, but also by passionate discussion with few limits, except for the dreaded “B” word – boring. Mr. Munson’s class is many things, but it is definitely never boring.
Film Study has been offered as an elective at Centreville for several years. The class is structured exactly as it sounds: students watch films, discuss them, and repeat. Films are generally watched chronologically, starting with the beginning of film history. Much of the class is focused on Hollywood films, though the selections occasionally venture internationally.
Mr. Munson has stated many times that he considers film his “passion in life,” and it has been for many years. “I’ve loved film from an early, early age. I started making backyard films whenever I could borrow a camcorder from neighbors,” he said. He pursued this in college with a film study minor, and after graduating he had two films win in local film festivals, bringing potential career opportunities. “I had an opportunity to go work in film but I decided at that point that I wanted to remain sort of an independent filmmaker, so I decided to get a more traditional job and then went back to school for my masters degree and started teaching.”
Though Mr. Munson could not definitively say how long he had been teaching Film Study, he estimates “around ten years.” The class was previously part of Centreville’s theater department, but with Mr. Munson’s background in film, he was asked to teach it as a part of the English department. “Film study itself is an English discipline, because it’s so similar to analyzing text. It’s just that film is our text,” he said. Aside from his one Film Study class, he teaches AP English Language and Composition.
“It’s really nice to teach a class where there’s a break from the academic rigor and we don’t have SOLs or AP exams to prepare for so we can take our time, we can go off script. If students really want to discuss a particular film, we can take extra time with it,” said Mr. Munson.
Rather than constant graded assignments, students are assessed on their participation in discussions after finishing films. “As long as you’re giving meaningful commentary, you get something good out of the class,” said Margaret Kasonso, “It’s relatively stress-free.”
“I love being able to give hot takes about films that people disagree with me on. That’s my favorite part,” said Dom Vila.
Though the class is relaxed, there is still a lot of opportunity for it to be educational. Students work on quarterly projects that apply different aspects of film like editing and analysis in the first semester, then spend the second semester developing a short film to be screened to the class at the end of the year. “I’ve begun picking up a lot of film facts and really taking into account lighting, and music, and the different editing techniques used,” said Kasonso.
In creating the curriculum for Film Study, Mr. Munson tries “to address a large range of interests from students who simply like watching film and want to talk about it to students who are very serious about film and would like to work in the industry.” He says that the value of the class is its ability to target lots of different students. It’s also a great way of developing analytical skills “so that we can try to put words to why we like something or why we don’t like something,” he said. “Understanding how [films] are crafted and how persuasive and manipulative they can be is really important so that students have awareness of this going forward and aren’t just blindly accepting media messages without being able to discuss them critically.”
Along with introducing a better understanding of how films are put together, Film Study also introduces its students to interesting films that they may never have seen otherwise. “My top three [films from class] would be ‘Rebel Without a Cause,’ Caligari the Somnambulist (‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’), and ‘Casablanca,’” said Vila. When asked if he would have ever seen any of these films if he had not taken the class, Vila replied “abso-flippin-lutely not.”
For several years, Film Study has been a very popular elective at Centreville, sometimes not being able to fit all of the people who selected the class. Surprisingly, enrollment has been down this year, which means a potential end to the elective.
Though this is not the first time this has happened, bringing a class back after it being gone for a year presents a challenge. “With past experience, once a class doesn’t run, it’s more difficult to get the ball rolling again and start it back up,” said Mr. Munson. Without word of mouth from current students, it’s hard to get people to sign up for classes they don’t know much about. While Mr. Munson remains hopeful, he said “at this point in time, it’s not looking likely next year.”
Although prospective students may lose the opportunity to take Film Study next year, there are still a lot of ways to learn about film outside of school. The most simple way is using resources on the internet. “You can get a complete film school education just by going on YouTube these days, which is absolutely incredible,” said Mr. Munson.
He recommends going “beyond your comfort zone” in viewing movies. “Go through older films from the beginning of time and don’t be afraid of subtitles or black and white films,” he said. There are a lot of opportunities for people interested in making films too. “The problems that you have to solve when you’re making a film on your own are the exact same problems that you have to solve if you’re working in a Hollywood production… creatively it’s all the exact same stuff. Grab a camera or even your phone and start experimenting. Experiment with lighting, experiment with acting, directing actors, experiment with your writing and just get your hands dirty and start making stuff.”
