The crunch of freshly salted popcorn. Hushed whispers in a dark theater. Amplified noise from the large speakers. Vibrant colors on the screen. Seeing a movie with friends used to mean being together. Now, during the pandemic, movie theaters may pose health risks. The Movie Club has been around for nine years and aims to recreate the social experience while being apart over Zoom.

Meeting once a week during Tuesday X-block, the Movie Club is a space for students to relax and recover from other activities during the week.

The club is advised by English teacher Evan Mousseau. It is geared towards people who like to watch, discuss and recommend movies with their peers.

“It’s really a club built around people who share common interests,” Mousseau said. “We are a place for people to get together and talk about movies: movies they’ve seen recently, recommend ones they’re excited about coming out in the future, as well as watching movies together and discussing them after.”

Freshman Sigal Solomon joined the club this year and has the chance to bond with other similarly minded peers.

“It’s a really good opportunity to meet people and to talk about things that you love, which is not always an opportunity you get a lot of times in school – just hang out and talk about things that you enjoy,” Solomon said. “So if you like movies, I think that you would really enjoy the Movie Club.”

The club helps its members socialize, according to freshman Ben Rosenblatt.

“It’s a great way to connect in a time where it’s hard to make friends and connect with people,” Rosenblatt said.

So far, the club has watched a few movies together on Zoom, including “Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse,” “Hunt for the Wilderpeople” and “Coco.” They have also watched “Young Frankenstein” and “The Sixth Sense” on their own and later discussed them all together.

Freshman Nathan Ives said that the chat function on Zoom has provided the club with more opportunities to communicate with one another during movies.

“It feels like talking in a movie theater, whispering a comment to another person, except it’s in the chat, so it’s also not as disturbing. It feels like a nice conversation without interrupting the movie,” Ives said.

Since the club is in its ninth year, there are both old and new traditions to explore over Zoom. According to Mousseau, in the past the club had a student-made film festival. Now, in addition to the festival and other activities, he is hoping to invite people who are involved professionally in the movie industry to talk about their jobs with the club.

“I think that people can definitely keep an eye out as the year goes on as we try to figure out a way to do some more public-facing events,” Mousseau said. “If folks in other clubs want to team up, that’s definitely something we’re interested in doing. It’s a fun way for us to use movies as a vehicle for understanding other perspectives and other groups.”

Even over Zoom, the members of the club are able to bond over their common love and appreciation for movies. According to Mousseau, people may interpret a movie differently, but they are still able to connect over their shared experience.

“You can be with a group of people and all simultaneously experience a movie together, but all of you are having different experiences as you filter through your own lens of life. That connection of sharing an experience together and talking about it right after is one of the powerful things,” Mousseau said. “Whether you are someone who wants to make movies or someone who enjoys watching them and just wants people to talk about them with, the whole range is represented in our club.”