If you’ve finished your Netflix watchlist over the summer, you’ll want to keep an eye on two upcoming film series this semester at Rice.
Starting Aug. 29 with a screening of camp classic "Hairspray," Rice Cinema and the Department of Visual and Dramatic Arts (VADA) will be hosting a series of monthly outdoor screenings. BYOChair Movie Night will run every month through the end of the semester, showing cult favorites as well as a Nov. 21 screening of children’s classic "The Wizard of Oz."
“It’ll be a great way for the cinema to stay active with the student body,” said Maria Martinez, events coordinator for VADA, who encouraged students to bring snacks and beverages to make it a full drive-in-style experience.
Films will be screened in the parking lot behind the Rice Media Center for the BYOChair Movie Night series. The lot will open at 8 p.m. and the movies will begin at 9. Attendance is free, but registration is necessary to keep the audiences under the maximum of 50 people.
In the event of rain, screenings will be moved indoors and capacity will be reduced to meet safety protocols.
“The cinema team is passionate about keeping up programing even though capacity for the cinema has been significantly reduced to 34 attendees,” Martinez said, noting the normal capacity for Rice Cinema is 223 people.
The cinema’s popular Low-Fi film series — which pulls analog deep cuts from the Rice Cinema archive of past student films — continues live-streaming every Thursday evening at 7 on Vimeo and Twitch.
On Aug. 27, the weekly film screening will feature VHS-only titles with an appropriately topical theme: First Week of School.