As I mentioned last time I was in town, I've started a sort of "English Movie Night" in town on Wednesday evenings. Held at a generator-powered mud shack down the road from my house, the audience has been a mixture of my students (I advertise every Tuesday/Wednesday to my high school kids) and townspeople, though I don't think either one of the two groups understands the spoken English. The usual fare in the theater is French-dubbed American action/horror films, so I think they're used to it.
This week I brought "The Simpsons Movie," which--when it was graciously sent to us by a returned PCV last year--I thought was surprisingly funny. I'm not a huge fan of the Simpsons, but there's enough comedy at both levels so that I could enjoy watching it again and they could sort of follow the plot. Choosing movies follows this formula a bit, and while likely soon end Movie Night because there simply aren't enough shared movies available at the Peace Corps house that a) appeal to children/students, b) have simple plotlines that Malagasy people can sort of relate to, and c) have enough slapstick humor to keep the crowd laughing. Though I'd prefer to show them something like Being John Malkovich, or even Rocky Horror, I just don't think it'd go over well.
The biggest problem I've found so far is the entrance fee, asked for by the people who run the cinema to pay for their costs (gas, mostly, and repairing the generator I guess). While it's 100 ariary (I'd guess this is aboout 8 cents), many of my students complain that "We no mo-nay" and therefore can't go. I don't totally believe them, but for the first movie last week I offered up 2000 ariary (thus 20 seats) out of my own pocket. Unfortunately, the kids that came to claim those seats were some of the most obnoxious, misbehaved students I have and I sort of resented having to do it. These are the kids who sit in the last row and heckle me if I say something wrong in Malagasy or if they can tell I'm getting frustrated with the class. Some of them, I know for a fact, certainly have the money.
Next Wednesday, I'm going to show the classic "The Gods Must Be Crazy," a film about a as-yet-uncontacted-by-the-Western-world tribe in southern Africa that finds a Coke bottle, tearing apart their peaceful society. Though If I remember it right, there's little dialogue and lots of falling down. There's nothing the Malagasy people like more, also, than laughing at "Africans," a group of people they don't consider themselves to be a part of--particularly "tribal" Africans. Whatever the reasons they enjoy it, we gather for the purpose of experiencing English as a real language that people use to communicate, not just a subject they're forced to learn in school. (More importantly, the screenings are a pretense for me to watch good movies and ignore everyone else in the room for a while).
