By Christian Ulrich, Mar. 22, 2022
Generation Z refers to people born between the years 1997 and 2012, a time when several classic movies were made such as “Shrek,” “High School Musical” and “The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie.” This semester, ASI is turning back the clock by showing these films with their new virtual event, “Gen Z’s Classic Movies.”
Students can sign up through the ASI portal where they recieve a free stream to watch many nostalgic films After registering, students can stream the film for 24 hours.
Last semester, ASI held a similar event called “Film Friday.” ASI presented films virtually every Friday to give students a bit of normalcy while dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. “Gen Z’s Classic Movies” provides the same message, but with a new twist.
Rudy Varo, ASI student activities supervisor, mentioned that the two events are similar in that both offer students a chance to watch movies at home if they are not yet comfortable going to the theater or simply cannot afford streaming services. “Gen Z’s Classic Movies” provides the same experience, this time with classics from the early 2000’s.
“I was born in 2000 and I’m a big fan of nostalgia. I’m slowly understanding that my childhood is over soon, and I really enjoy looking back on things in a nostalgic way. This event is about accessibility to students that don’t have streaming services; it’s a great opportunity for students to watch a movie they haven’t seen in a while,” said ASI BEAT Student Activities Assistant Monica Martinez.
For Martinez, choosing which films to show was easy, and she felt like these films touch on a broad spectrum of fanbases.
“I presented the event with these three movies in mind. I felt that they were solid films; we wanted the selections to be diverse,” said Martinez.
Referring to these films as classics may sound strange at first, however to Gen Z, these films define a distinct time in their life. To them, these movies are as classic as it gets.
“When I saw ‘Shrek’ and ‘High School Musical’ I thought, ‘wow, these movies are iconic.’ These are the staples of my childhood,” said Sarah Navarro, ASI student activities assistant.
Martinez took to Instagram to help promote the event, “I reached out on my Instagram, showing a TikTok of Shrek dancing on campus and it got a good reaction. I noticed that we got a lot of RSVPs after that video was posted
When presenting this event to ASI, Martinez initially intended for it to be held in person. As COVID-19 restrictions continued, ASI moved the event to a virtual format.
Both Varo and Martinez expressed their hopes to continue the event in the future. Martinez mentioned how she would love to show all the Shrek movies, and Varo tossed around the idea of showing some Marvel movies.
As students return to campus, virtual events have become less common. “It has been a bit difficult now that students are mostly on campus; virtual events have gone down a bit. We have tried our best to get people’s attention,” said Martinez.
To learn more about this event, the campus community can register here.