In a university that has over 300 societies, it can be hard to decide which is right for you. While I can’t speak for Maths Soc, as I cry when seeing the words sine, cosine and tangent, nor the Sailing Club due to my promising sailing career abruptly ending at ten when I removed the drain plug from an optimist, I can convince you to join a film society at UoE. I attended a week of screenings at Film Soc, Fleshmarket, and Bad Film Soc to compile a list of reasons as to why you should become a member of at least one.
If you’re looking to get into film, but don’t know where to start, or you just want to press pause on a stressful week at university and chat with people who love film, Film Soc might be the place for you. Created to bring together people who love, want to watch and discuss a variety of films 一 “from niche ‘60s auteurs to ‘00s teen movies” 一 at Film Soc, you can enjoy bi-weekly screenings of classic movies like Dead Poets Society and Apocalypse Now, along with recent releases like the Iron Claw and Poor Things.
Reversely, if you found Jared Leto’s presence in American Psycho insufferable but would like to torture yourself further by watching him in Oscar-snubbed masterpiece, Morbius, or you lie awake at night traumatised by Sharknado yet crave more of the marvellous feat of screenwriting that is tornadoes filled with sharks (dare I say better than Jaws), you might only find happiness at Bad Film Soc! Self described as “the only place brave enough to show you Taylor Swift in a fursuit and Patrick Bateman have an axe lugged through him.”, you’ll find them on Mondays in 40GS watching Jacob Black deliver the iconic, “Bella, where the hell have you been, loca?”.
If you’re into the obscure, the esoteric or the macabre, you’ll feel right at home with Fleshmarket. Edinburgh’s horror society hosts its Thursday evening screening at Scotland’s most haunted pub, where you can cosy up in the pub’s cinema room with a pint while watching a 1991 futuristic feast about French people doing what they do best (eating other French people). While attending these societies won’t result in you becoming the next Christopher Nolan, you can’t go wrong with at least one good film per week, a good post-film discussion and pints once in a while!
Image: via Edinburgh University Student’s Association, FilmSoc Logo