Blog #5: Movie Magic.

Why do I love movies and what makes them so special? Also, why should you love them too? Because you should...

So, yeah, I talk a lot about movies

If you know me, you know my life revolves around movies. For the sake of simplicity, I will be using both the terms film and movies interchangeably. Let all the film buffs cry. If you want, you can always give me feedback on it. At this point, I’m starting to send myself messages. Anyway, film has always been the center of my life in the way I respond to circumstances, how I view situations or conflict and how I create expectations. Which yes, is dangerous. But, with how engrained in film has been in my life, it is only expected that I do so. 

A little story time of when I was around four or five whenever I woke up the first thing I did was go downstairs and turn on the TV to watch a movie. If my mom yelled at me and said “You will lose your eyesight, kid!” well then I would watch family home videos and somehow that protected my eyesight and engaged her in viewing. In times when I grew tired of watching my parents get married or the moments after my birth I would go to the cabinet under the TV and read all the details on the back of the VCR tapes. I was truly addicted to film and honestly in some ways still am. My parents became worried that I would amount to nothing given the fact I had watched the same tapes over fifty times each so as any concerned parent they decided to force me in a different direction. 

Instead of staying home they decided to take me to the library and get me involved in the reading club. But, this is the place where everything changed. When my parents were distracted I would sneak over to the movie section and look at every single DVD or tape they had and I nearly had a heart attack. I had never seen these many movies in my life. But, in the times my mom would catch me looking at the DVDs I would get my ears pulled and I hated that. She told me to go and look at books that were good for my soul rather than movies which would ruin my innocent eyes that had seen every Hitchcock and Polanski film out there. At one point, she dragged me to the “Spirit and Religion” section and pointed at different books by Joyce Meyer for me to read. As I searched through these books, I found many about how to fight my inner demons, how to repair my marriage and how to be a good housewife. All of which I questioned in validity and relevancy to my 7 year old self. 

After spending my time browsing this exuberating category something caught my eye in the row behind the “God loves you, give me money” books. I saw a book about movies. As my mom read her book, I moved on to the movie section books which I had never realized existed. At that point, my life had once again found meaning. I opened up the extra large books filled with scenes from films I had never seen before. As I flipped through the pages, the movies came to life in my mind once again. I read stories about directors and the lengths they took to make the movies that entertained me. I was so excited to read as much as I could. That day I checked out at least 5 or 6 movie books, using several library cards to do so. My mother was not happy but she wasn’t mad either. I think she was happy that I was at least reading over watching. That was until she found a book titled “1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die” which included the film “Chelsea Girls” poster in the center of the book. After that, I was no longer allowed to get movie books with pictures. Again, to combat that, I would gather change wherever I could and I would discreetly take the books with pictures of film scenes I wanted (all good scenes or iconic scenes) and make copies to put in my book bag. 

As I got older, my love for film never changed and neither did my parents. At this point, I had purchased a $100 tablet with the money I got for my birthday one year. When we went to the library to do homework since we couldn’t afford internet, I would download all the movies I could. Since my mom wouldn’t let us have devices in our rooms, I had to work my way through that. So I bought a little tablet bag that would hold my tablet and I told her I got it so I could protect my tablet. But, what I did was I had also purchased a book that had the similar weight of my tablet and I would interchange them both throughout the day and night whenever I gave it to her so she would get used to the weight. But, every night was a risk I was taking. Of course, there was a time I was caught. Yes, I had to wait till my next birthday to get a new tablet, because somehow the other one vanished. But, at this point I had also saved up enough to by another device as a back up and I had it shipped to my friends house so they never knew I had it. I did this all for movies. 

When I had enough money to go to the movies, I went a lot. I remember my family was always late to pick us up from school. By late, I mean 5-6 hours late. Which left me with a lot of free time. So, as any normal boy I signed up for an Uber account under my dad’s name and would buy uber rides with my money to take me to and from the theater. They never found out about that.

Okay, so what's the point of this?

After writing all of this, I realized that my original goal of talking about movies and why they are so powerful got lost in translation, for lack of a better term. But, I think with this series of unfortunate events you have had a brief chance to see the lengths I went to watch movies. I’ve always loved the feeling of pressing play, sitting back and watching events unfold that tell a story so captivating you forget where you are. The feelings you feel, the memories you form and the places you go are all a part of this unique experience. An experience I believe is overlooked quite often. So, instead of a lecture this time, here’s what I did for film. I love film. It has truly crafted who I am today in so many ways. My hope is that it is in some form able to do the same for others. I hope that others can find some sort of enjoyment and entertainment in film. Going to the theaters and sharing an experience with friends and strangers that is unforgettable. Whether in a bad way or good way. 

Also, the image at the top is of an old film group I started when I was 13-14. I was the moderator of this group filled with people twice or three times my age and we would just talk movies. It was weird having friends who had kids that were thirty, but I think part of that helped me find a more intentional bond with film rather than a surface level entertainment. I found that no matter how old you get, it still has a deep influence on anyone. 

I would love the chance to hear your thoughts on this and really anything you want to contribute. Even if you just want to say I was a rebellious child, that would be cool too. Until next time, stay classy 🙂

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