Okanagan College is back with a fifth season of classic films.
Billed as “It’s the End of the World As We Know It,” the special program of dystopian/apocalyptic films to be shown at the Salmar Classic, begins at 5 p.m. Monday, Jan. 30.
Despite the seemingly dark subject matter, Okanagan College film professor Tim Walters says he was attracted to the theme precisely because of the growing range of movies that explore this terrain.
“The desire to show audiences the end of the world, or a world gone bad, is almost as old as film itself, but one that has become increasingly prevalent in mainstream culture in the past few decades, and is now a recurring context for not just sci-fi or horror films, but comedies, Christian and secular thrillers, and blockbuster young-adult film series like The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner.”
Walters ranks this season’s lineup of films as the best yet:
“Focusing on this genre allows for us to see how the idea of a dystopian world has changed over time and between cultures, which can help us understand our current anxieties,” he says.
“It is also a theme that allows us to enjoy a surprisingly broad range of films – action and zombie movies, historical epics, psychological dramas, etc. – from some of the greatest directors in film history.”
Walters says that when planning these series, he is mindful of the fact that Salmon Arm has an unusually sophisticated film-going public, and thinks local audiences will appreciate these films, almost none of which has ever been screened in town before.
The not-for-profit series is associated with a second-year university transfer course at Okanagan College called “Studies in Reading Film,” but all of the films are open to the general public.
“The program begins on Monday at 5 p.m. with a dystopian double bill of Fritz Lang’s visionary masterpiece Metropolis, released in 1927, followed by Bong Joon Ho’s 2013 revolutionary sci-fi action thriller Snowpiercer at 7:30.
The final film of the series will be voted on by students taking the course and announced in mid-March.
All screenings will take place at the Salmar Classic.
General admission for all films is $5. More information is available on the Facebook page, “It’s the End of the World As We Know It.”
The lineup includes Children of Men at 5 p.m. on Feb. 6, Melancholia at 7 p.m. on Feb. 27, Blade Runner at 5 p.m. on March 6, 28 Days Later at 5 p.m. on March 13, The New World at 5 p.m. on March 20, and Clockwork Orange at 7 p.m. on March 27.
The class pick will be shown at 5 p.m. on April 3.