Trinity students crowded into Mabee Dining Hall last Thursday for the Student Programming Board’s monthly 9:09 movie event.
This month’s movie was “Dear White People,” a film about four African-American students attending an Ivy League college in the U.S. The film is a satirical drama that was written and directed by Justin Simien.
SPB co-sponsored the event with the Black Student Union to celebrate and honor Black History Month.
“We wanted something that would spark people’s attention and get across the message that there is racism and lots of other things that we don’t really think about now,” said sophomore Carolyn Young, director of SPB. “The movie addressed it in a funny way and had a title that really popped out. We thought that the movie would be something that college students would be interested in coming to see to get a new view on this subject.”
Senior Chris Hertz and junior Dan Farris attended the movie together. It was the first time for both Hertz and Farris to attend a 9:09 movie showing.
“It addressed an interesting topic and also my friends were going, so I thought, “˜Why not?'” Hertz said.
Farris said the movie wasn’t what he expected. “It was very thought-provoking and not what I thought it was going to be at all,” Farris said.
BSU president Cairo DeGaillard was also in attendance.
“I really wanted to watch this movie because I hadn’t seen it before,” DeGaillard said. “I’m in The African-American Experience class right now, and we’ve studied a film from the early 1900s and some of the themes were pretty similar, so it was interesting to get that perspective.”
Students were also able to enjoy an assortment of snacks and beverages, including chips, nachos, popcorn, cookies, hot chocolate, soda and lemonade.
“This event was a lot more successful than I expected it to be,” Young said. “There were a lot of people. We ran out of food for the first time ever at a movie night.”
The 9:09 movies began last spring to give students the opportunity to see movies for free that are no longer in theaters and before they are released on DVD. Past movies shown have included “Catching Fire” and “Frozen.”
“We wanted to do something super catchy and at a time that a lot of people could attend,” Young said. “9:09 seemed like a time we could get people to start tucking away in their heads, and it’s become a lot more successful over the past year.”
Although the Student Programming Board normally shows one movie per month, there will not be a 9:09 movie showing in March due to busy schedules. Instead, SPB plans to have three or four consecutive weeks of 9:09 movie showings in April.
