‘FRAME’ film Club at METAL Peterborough

As part of our forthcoming R&D project, we will be collaborating with the Film Club based at METAL Peterborough, ‘FRAME’. The club’s facilitator, Agnieszka Sobieraj, has kindly written the reflection below on the importance of experiencing film in the community. Find ‘FRAME’ on fb here.

Film plays an important role in my life, directly and indirectly. I know that many people share my interest. This belief helped me to come to the conclusion that we can share our passion by watching and discussing films as a group. Film Club “FRAME”, launched in January 2012 and it is an independent, small club based in the Art Centre “METAL” in Peterborough and I hope it provides a welcoming, stimulating, and comfortable space.

As we already know that cinema is the most complex and powerful art form in the present world. However, some films qualify as artworks and others do not.

Film matters, among other things, because it has an extraordinary capacity to expand our reality, to deepen our moral sensibility, and to shape our self-understanding, sometimes by moving us closer to cultures, problems, and realities that are distant from those we know well.

Film not only offers a narrative similar to literature, it also provides an audio-visual feast for the senses. When we sit down to watch a film, the sensual experience – sight and sound – is familiar, but the cerebral one, the story itself, can take us anywhere. In this sense, film is both an old friend and a new adventure. It can provide catharsis and perspective and may open our eyes to new ways of thinking, feeling and pursuing our lives.

We all agree movies allow us to escape – and there is value in that – but it is more than simple escapism. Movies take us to places we have never been and inside the skin of people quite different from ourselves. They offer us a window onto the wider world, broadening our perspective and opening our eyes to new wonders.

If you agree with me or even if you do not, join any film club and be a part of the group which can be inspiring, stimulating and is the place to discuss, share your views, make new friends and enjoy a good evening!

Agnieszka Sobieraj