By Lexus Yamashiro | Staff Writer

For second-year student Tia Chong Kee, the idea of starting her own movie club on campus has been a dream that she has wanted to fulfill since beginning school at KCC in 2015. After going through the process of creating a new Registered Independent Organization (RIO) and collecting around 30 signatures of interest from students in Fall 2017, the 21-year-old’s Movie Club was officially established at the start of the Spring 2018 semester in which she serves as the club’s president.

The Movie Club, advised by Information Literacy Librarian Joy Oehlers, provides students with the opportunity to discuss their favorite movies and films of shared interest to build relationships amongst students. Beyond movie sharing, Kee, a Hospitality major, said that students will also have the chance to discuss amongst the club interesting TV shows, books, and games as long as it involves storytelling.

“I believe that storytelling or, in general, movies, is one of the second things in life that bring people together,” Kee said. “[The Movie Club] will be kind of like a book club.”

After holding its first meeting on January 16 with about 10 students who attended, Kee is looking to recruit more members. Open to anyone on campus, weekly meetings for the club will be held in the Lama Library on Tuesdays at 1:30 p.m. and Saturdays at noon. During these meetings, students will get to critique, discuss, and share movies, books, TV shows, and games of interest while coming up with ideas for possible club events. Kee welcomes students to sit in these meetings if they are looking to join.

The Movie Club will be having its next meeting on Saturday, January 27, at noon in the Lama Library.

Having started up just recently, the Movie Club is in the process of determining future events for the campus and itself. Kee said that she is trying to push for guest speakers such as film studio workers and book writers to come to KCC to share their experiences, including KCC Arts and Humanities professor Sharon Sussman who used to work for DreamWorks Animations, according to Kee.

Setting up fundraisers in which proceeds will be donated to organizations such as the American Heart Association are events that the Movie Club is hoping to do in February, including plans to host film festivals on campus in the near future.

As the club continues to grow, Kee is hopeful that students will decide to join for a chance to express common movie interests and learn about unfamiliar films too.

“It’d be good [for students] to meet other people who are fans,” she said. “Whether or not you like movies, everyone loves a good story.”