Video Explorations

Upcoming videos

To find out what movies we have in store for the near future, simply take a look at the upcoming calendars.

Movies we've watched

Here are some of the videos we've viewed recently, along with the questions we developed for each video and a synopsis of each discussion.

What we do

We watch a recent, popular movie almost every Saturday night, and afterwards we have a lively discussion about what we can learn from the video about human potential. So it isn't a "Siskel and Ebert" kind of event; rather, it's a chance to discuss personal-growth themes like love, courage, hope, family, career and relationships. During the discussion, we put particular emphasis on how these personal-growth themes show up in our lives and how we've handled them, since that's more meaningful to each of us personally than generic discussions about the condition of society in general.

Benefits

  • Meet and connect on a deep level with "real" people in a relaxed, comfortable atmosphere.
  • Discuss your growth in a caring, playful way with others who also want to learn and grow.
  • Discover what others have learned from their own personal experiences in the wide range of personal-growth topics suggested by the video.

Structure

After introducing the Center and giving participants a chance to introduce themselves in a fun, low-stress way, we enjoy popcorn and the popular film for the evening. In the discussion following the movie, we discuss ourselves and our own personal growth, not the film. Here's how we do that: First, someone in the group suggests a theme that stood out for them from the movie. Then as a group we build a question around that theme, using the following four guidelines in developing the questions. We try to create questions that
  • have something to do with human potential,
  • have something to do with the movie,
  • have something to do with ourselves, and
  • are open-ended or "essay questions."

(By the way, the easiest way to develop a question that satisfies guideline #3 is to include the words "I," "me" or "my" in it, and the easiest way to develop a question that satisfies guideline #4 is to start it with the words "How" or "What.") Then another person suggests another theme and the group develops a question around it, and so on until we have 8 or 10 questions. These question serve as a "diving board" into our feelings and experiences about our personal growth.

Please do

  • Feel free to express yourself and your feelings, and to hear and respect the feelings of others.
  • Use I-Statements.

Please don't

  • Impose your values, beliefs and feelings on others.
  • Invalidate your own values, beliefs or feelings just because someone (or even everyone) in the group feels differently.
  • Use You-Statements.