By Rory Archer
The Pima Film Forum’s list of showings for January includes “Raiders of the Lost Ark” on Jan. 15, “Spirited Away” on Jan. 22, and “Mad Max: Fury Road” on Jan. 29.
TUCSON, ARIZ. — This week marks the close of the 2025 fall semester, and with that, the first semester of the Pima Film Forum, Pima Community College’s very own movie-showing club. The PFF is the passion project of English major Maddie Hill, a sophomore here at PCC. Hill chatted with The Pima Post about the club.
Q: What time do you meet?
A: 3 P.M. every Thursday! [West Campus, room M101].
Q: How did you get involved with Film Club?
A: Well, I’m the president and founder of the Pima Film Forum!
This semester, I was taking Jennifer Wiley’s Literature and Film, and I loved having the opportunity to have long-form discussions with my peers about classic film.
For a long time, I’ve wanted to find a way to get more classic films and older films in front of people my age because I think it’s a lot harder to discover older cinema nowadays unless you’re really looking for it, and it can be so intimidating not knowing where to start. I wanted to create a space that appealed to everyone—not just the hardcore, artsy-fartsy cinephiles, but also the people who are just starting to dip their toes into cinema as an art. I think there’s something really magical about the movie theater experience, being able to sit in a room with all these other people and take in a marvelous work of art, and I wanted to create a space for that sort of collective effervescence at Pima.
Q: Who is your club’s advisor? Have they had any positive influence on the club?
A: My advisor is the wonderful Tim Salzer, who shares my adoration of cinema and has been an immense help. He keeps the popcorn in his car between meetings and recommends bad Jason Statham movies to everyone who shows up. Who could ask for anything more?
Q: Now that you’ve had some more people attending meetings, how has that been?
A: I mean, obviously the club is more fun [with more people] but the secret is that when people don’t show up, me and Tim just get to eat all the popcorn and talk about Nicolas Cage, so it’s a win-win.
Q: How is the club right now?
A: I’ll say this—it’s not easy starting something from scratch.
Our first meeting was a complete no-show, but one of the things that has kept me going is hearing from other people online how much they wish they had a club like this at their school. When we had our second meeting, I was so excited about the two people that showed up that I tweeted about it offhandedly, and it randomly blew up overnight and ended up getting over 250,000 likes.
A tweet from Maddie, replying to a thread from Nov. 6 that started with the tweet, “the first meeting of the movie club i’m starting at my community college is today and we’re still not 100% sure if literally anyone is gonna be there so pls pray that it goes okay and somebody shows up.” followed by the reply “yeah nobody showed up lmao.” The viral tweet from Nov. 13 says, “TWO PEOPLE SHOWED UP THIS WEEK!!!!!” with a gif of cheering. The tweet has 9.9 million views and 252,000 likes.
I got all the comments from people who had run film clubs telling me not to give up, and people asking if they could donate money for us to give out popcorn, and the outpouring of support was so overwhelming and inspiring that I knew I had to keep trying, no matter how many people showed up every week. I’m not throwing in the towel because I know that there are people out there for this club, and when they show up, it’s a great feeling. When we showed “Rocky,” we had eight people show up, and it was incredible! The free popcorn definitely helps.
It’s a process—I definitely have to crack down on hanging up more flyers and getting the word out there. It’s hard knowing what works until it works, y’know? This is also my first time ever running a club, so I’m still getting my training wheels off, but it’s been a great experience so far, and it’s earnestly worth it to experience great cinema with my peers.
Q: [Tell me more about] the tweet.
A: Funnily enough, I got a lot of Pima faculty in the replies to that tweet. People also genuinely Venmoed me upwards of $200. I went to bed, and it had 6,000 likes. When I woke up, it was 78,000 [likes], and people had sent me $120. It was kind of surreal—a couple of well-known film critics [direct messaged] me to offer advice. I was really let down after the no-show in our first week, so it was really the support I needed, and it’s made me so confident for the future of the club, especially in the new year and the new semester.
Q: [Which film critics reached out to you?]
A: I had Siddhant Adlakha reach out, which meant a lot—I really admire him. He’s a director, critic and video essayist; he’s written for TIME, Variety, and The Guardian. I love his stuff! He works with a great critic named Patrick H. Willems a lot.
I’ve met a lot of weird, great, random, brilliant people through film, […] and I really hope that I can continue to make those kinds of weird star-crossed friendships like that with the Pima Film Forum.
Q: It seems like you’re popular in a lot of cinephile circles online—especially your Letterboxd and the Matt Damon movie list going viral—how long have you been involved with the film critic community?
Another viral tweet of Maddie’s, sharing her Letterboxd list of movies she says “Matt Damon just shows up in.”
A: Like I said, I’ve been an obsessive movie lover for years, and I’m so happy to have found my space in the film community online. I started my Letterboxd in 2020, and since then, I’ve been featured on the front page four times, [and] I’ve been retweeted by Studio Ghibli (my true claim to fame). One time, the official Letterboxd account stole a meme I made… It’s crazy out there. Once, I got invited to a local premiere of Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro,” and I was the youngest person there by like 30 years and the only person not in a tuxedo.
Madeline Hill holding a thumbs-up in a picture taken of her next to a “Maestro” poster at Film Fest Tucson.
Q: Do you have any sort of “word of advice” for someone who’s looking to get into [watching] film as an art form, but doesn’t know how?
A: Watch movies. Just watch ‘em. Don’t let anybody tell you that you’re stupid for watching what you like. If you want to watch “K-Pop Demon Hunters” 47 times, listen, that’s your prerogative. But don’t be afraid to try new stuff. A lot of people ask me how to get into the 70s or how to get into kung-fu movies or westerns or whatever it is, and the answer is just watch movies. Pick a random movie you’ve never seen before on Tubi. Watch some random Hong Kong action movie from the 80s. Figure out directors you like, figure out subgenres you like, and eras you like. Don’t be afraid to Google “movies like ____.”
Talk to other people who like film, surround yourself with it, don’t be afraid to sound pretentious sometimes. And go to the movies! They need you! We are so lucky to live in a city with Casa Video and The Loft Cinema. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are 50% off at Casa Video. Take a friend, and you both pick a random movie that looks fun, and then go home and watch them. Check out DVDs from Pima College Library and the regular Pima County libraries! We have so many criterions at West Campus!
It’s a lot easier than you think, but you’ve gotta do it; and you’ve gotta explore, just like any other art form. Some of the best movies I’ve ever seen have the worst posters and trailers and synopses. You gotta just watch movies and don’t look back. And if you ever need a recommendation, and I’m not kidding, message @pimafilmforum and tell me your favorite movies and I’ll recommend something for you.
Q: Is there anything you feel students should know about your film club?
A: Old movies seem scary, but they’re not!
[But] honestly, we just play the movie and eat popcorn and talk about what we thought afterwards! And you don’t have to talk; usually it’s sort of a read-the-room’s-vibe thing. Sometimes we have a discussion, sometimes not.
Also, I got this Tom Cruise photo card, and I’m gonna start bringing it to club [meetings] for good luck because he’s the president of movies.
An image of Tom Cruise in “Mission Impossible” encased in a card holder adorned with pink stickers.
I’ve been carrying her in my wallet like a sailor.
Q: Thank you so much for letting me interview you! Do you have any closing comments?
A: I just think movies are such a brilliantly universal form of connection, and if I can make someone laugh, or smile, or tear up or even just say, “I’m glad I watched that,” then I’ve done my job. I’ve been watching movies obsessively my entire life; I watch one every single day, and when I had the idea for the club, the first thing I thought was, “Why didn’t I think of this sooner!” It all feels very kismet. I dunno. I just love movies at the end of the day. Nothing makes me happier than showing a movie to someone, and they love it.
Y’know, the current state of cinema is in a really shaky place, and it has been for a while. Movie theaters have been struggling since the pandemic, and I know the recent news of Netflix buying Warner Brothers has a lot of my friends feeling discouraged about the future of cinema. But man, when I’m sitting in that room, watching “Rocky,” and Adrian steps into the audience to watch him fight in the final round… I get chills, every time. There’s just something about it that seriously feels like magic. And I love being able to bottle that feeling and pass it around the room.
Just don’t be afraid to drop by anytime! And we have so much free popcorn—when you see how much popcorn we have, it will blow your mind. Please come eat our popcorn. We buy a pound every week. A pound of popcorn is truly ludicrous amount.
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From Maddie’s professional page, “Madeline Hill is a poet, playwright and actress from Tucson, Arizona. In 2023, her zine “Dying Girl” was on display at The University of Arizona Poetry Library, and the Bartell Theater in Madison, Wisconsin, produced her short play “The Transgender Terror.” She has appeared onstage in award-winning productions as a physical performer and live foley artist. Her first full-length play, “Everything You’ve Got,” was nominated for Best Play, Best Performance, and Best Solo Performance in the 2025 Broadway World Phoenix Awards.”