The Documentary Film Group, better known as Doc Films, is a student-operated film society

Film society

A film society is a membership club where people can watch screenings of films which would otherwise not be shown in mainstream cinemas. In Spain they are known as "Cineclubs," and in Germany they are known as "Filmclubs"....

 at the University of Chicago

University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...

, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

, United States. It is—according to a 2007 Chicago Tribune

Chicago Tribune

The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...

article—"the longest-running collegiate film society in the country" and may be the oldest film society of any kind in the United States. Formed in 1932 as a group of students who gathered to screen documentary film

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

s, it officially adopted the name International House Documentary Film Group in 1940. It has since expanded both the genres it screens and the activities it sponsors.

History

Doc Films began in 1932 as the Documentary Film Group, as the students involved collected money to foot the bill for screening documentaries. In 1940, it officially became the International House Documentary Film Group", and by 1950, when an auditorium was in use for screening films, was already being hailed as "probably the oldest U.S. film society" by Film News.

Activities

As the student organizers realized that they could not sustain the organization on documentaries alone, they expanded to incorporate fictional

Fictional film

Fictional film or narrative film is film that tells a fictional story or narrative. Narrative cinema is usually contrasted to films that present information, such as a nature documentary, as well as to some experimental films...

 and experimental film

Experimental film

Experimental film or experimental cinema is a type of cinema. Experimental film is an artistic practice relieving both of visual arts and cinema. Its origins can be found in European avant-garde movements of the twenties. Experimental cinema has built its history through the texts of theoreticians...

s. While the University's classes are in session, Doc Films hosts nightly screenings of films selected from one of these categories at Max Palevsky Cinema, located in Ida Noyes Hall. Doc's screening selection is eclectic. Each quarter of the academic year, students and members of the public propose series of ten films that are somehow related to each other (filmmaker, actor, language, genre, era, theme, etc.). The Programming Committee, which consists of any interested students or members of the public, then chooses among these proposals to schedule a different series for each weeknight (Sunday through Thursday). Recent films, normally delayed one quarter from their nationwide release date, are shown on weekends. Occasionally, Doc screens films which have not yet been released to the general public in the area, including The Rules of the Game

The Rules of the Game

The Rules of the Game is a 1939 French film directed by Jean Renoir about upper-class French society just before the start of World War II...

and Brokeback Mountain

Brokeback Mountain

Brokeback Mountain is a 2005 romantic drama film directed by Ang Lee. It is a film adaptation of the 1997 short story of the same name by Annie Proulx with the screenplay written by Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry...

.

Other events include showings of student films and conversations with faculty and professionals connected to the film industry. It has hosted a number of film directors, including Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...

, Woody Allen

Woody Allen

Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...

 and John Ford

John Ford

John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...

.

External links

• Official website
• Video profile from The University of Chicago
• Current calendar
• Database of Films shown 1936-2008