Last year, clubs sponsored films sporadically and without much concern for copyright. This year, after other colleges fell victim to copyright lawsuits, all films must be sponsored by ASWC. Specifically, they must be approved by this year’s ASWC film chair, senior Teal Greyhavens. Here he talks about the new protocol as well as his plans for the coming year.

Pio: What exactly does the ASWC film chair do?
Teal: The ASWC films chair is one of several chairs in ASWC. There’s the public speakers chair, there’s the public events chair and I’m the films chair. Each of those chairs act as a coordinator of events. We all attend a programming committee meeting with the senators to decide what programs will best serve the campus and then we implement them. So basically I’m the person that arranges and coordinates film screenings on campus.

Pio: Why did you want to do this position?
Teal: I actually applied for the position as a first year, not knowing much of anything, just out of sheer enthusiasm for films. I didn’t get the position and rightly so. Last spring I decided I would try again. It’s a job I really love because I’m interested in films in sort of a blanket way, I love everything about them, I love showing them, I love making them.

Pio: Why is the film chair different this year?
Teal: This year the ASWC finance committee decided that rather than have the ASWC films chair be an independent operative from groups showing films on their own, now all groups on campus have to go through ASWC, so basically, they have to talk to me. This was mostly because of copyright issues but also to streamline all the programming on campus.

Pio: What were some of the copyright issues?
Teal: The way that copyright laws are and have been, despite Whitman ignoring them up until now, is that any movie shown on campus that is open to the public, must have copyright permission for a single screening of it. That costs anywhere from $200: 700. If we don’t get the film rights, and a couple of schools nearby have actually had this happen, then we could get fined hundreds of thousands of dollars and possibly not be allowed to show movies on campus anymore. If it’s a private showing or a teacher showing it to a class, that’s fine, but anything advertised to the public you have to get permission from the distributors. That’s why groups have to go through ASWC, so we can contact the distributors. That is new, not as far as the law is concerned, but new in terms of Whitman really enforcing the law.

Pio: Do you think the fact that groups now have to go through ASWC will mean that less films will be shown this year?
Teal: I think it’s possible that we can get even more films shown. I think it requires a lot of organization on ASWC’s part, but the programming committee is working very hard to do that. There’s plenty of money for lots of films to be shown, so I think it’s just a matter of scheduling. Any club that wants to show a film should contact me.

Pio: Have you already started scheduling films for this year?
Teal: The schedule is somewhat open, but it’s filling up pretty fast. We’ve gotten a lot of requests. I’ve got a lot of dates reserved, but films aren’t assigned to all of those dates. Groups should understand that it is a lot of work to get any one film shown and I would hope that people would have sympathy and know that we will try to fit in as many as possible.

Pio: Why do you think it’s important that Whitman show films?
Teal: I think that movies are unique among forms of programming because they can mean so many different things. You can show an action blockbuster that people will go to as a study break and then you can show crazy thought-provoking documentaries. I just think that movies are amazing.

Pio: What’s your favorite movie?
Teal: My favorites movies, ’cause I can’t name just one, are “Run Lola Run,” “The Apartment,” “2001 Space Odyssey” and the Disney “Hunchback of Notre Dame.”