On Monday January 30th Okanagan College’s “Classics at the Classic” series returns to the Salmar Classic theatre for a fifth season with a special program of dystopian/apocalyptic films called “It’s the End of the World As We Know It….”
Despite the seemingly dark subject matter, OC Film Professor Dr. Tim Walters says that 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.”
Professor Walters ranks this season’s line-up 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. It is also a theme that allow 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. When planning these series, I’m mindful of the fact that Salmon Arm has an unusually sophisticated film-going public, and I think local audiences are going to really 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 OC called “Studies in Reading Film,” but all of the films are open to the general public. The program begins on Monday January 30th with a dystopian double bill of Fritz Lang’s visionary masterpiece “Metropolis” (1927) at 5pm, followed by Bong Joon Ho’s revolutionary sci-fi action thriller “Snowpiercer” (2013) at 7:30pm. 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.”