Hi, my name is Mahir Rahman. Some of you may know me by my other name. I would like to run for the position of President of the Roehampton Film Society and this is a (somewhat) brief manifesto made to give you some insight into how I would run the society and hopefully encourage you to vote for me. I shall discuss why I am running, what I feel works and thus intend to keep should I be elected, and what new ideas I would like to implement into the society. So, here we go

Part 1.

Let’s start with why I’m running.

Why:

• Over the past year, I have really enjoyed being part of film soc as a past time away from my work and my degree and as part of my university experience in general.
• And so yeah, I could’ve just stuck to being a member of the society. But I wanted to contribute more, increase the appeal of the society to the wider Roehampton contingent and simply put implement ideas which I feel could improve how the society

Well, that was a relatively short section. Let’s move on to the next.

Part 2.

What is working:

• I’d say first and foremost, the general structure of the society works. Theme decided for the month, Monday evening film. Simple and convenient for most members and thus it would be something I would like to retain should I attain this role.
• I like the collaborations with other societies and the further attempts to collaborate and increase the viewership of minority group in film. This included the collaboration with UBM and the drag society.
• I liked the introductory game. As quaint and awkward and occasionally completely unrelated to film as can possibly be imagined as it was, it was fun it did get people involved and it stays as far I’m concerned.
• I like that at the end of each month there was a poll to decide what movie was going to be watched on the last Monday and Christmas. Giving the people some choice and variety made the society seem more democratic whilst also seeming somewhat tailored to everybody’s wants.
• I like the special events currently in place such as the Oscar party and the back-to-back showing of the Room and the Disaster Artist and it is another tradition I would like to uphold.
• I appreciate that the current heads of the society were very accommodating in terms of the information prior to the showing of the film in terms of trigger warnings and again I will promise that I will make the society a space where people can feel both safe and comfortable and most importantly happy whilst exploring the art of cinema.

There are some further elements that I would like to keep but as they are elements I would like to expand upon, I thought it would be best to get into it in the next section which happens to be…

Part 3.

What can be added, expanded, changed or improved:

• The first thing I would like to propose as a change would be the time at which we meet from 7:30PM to (ideally) 6:30PM. As someone living off campus, with a one and a half journey to get home on a Monday, the starting time of the film showings were far from ideal and so I could understand for a lot of students on campus it wouldn’t be ideal. With my proposed time which should theoretically be ok, students on campus will have enough time to have a bit of rest prior to the films and plenty after, off-campus students get that extra hour afterwards to get home sooner, get more work done and not worry about having their timing messed up for the week, there is greater opportunity to show more films, such as double bills or short films. Even if some may consider that time early or if there are any worries that not enough people will show up by that time, little activities can done to fill the time – from getting snacks to charades. As far as I see, there are primarily benefits to starting earlier – as is the case with most things in life except learning Klingon. That’s something you should do when you know you’ve got a crowd who will appreciate it. Or smoking. Actually, don’t smoke, Kids.
• I think it would also be good to set aside some time to discuss the films after watching them. Some people might join just to watch a free film but others join to expand their cinematic repertoire and understand various views of film and its influences. I would certainly love to and I have talked to several members of the current society who would love to as well. For those who aren’t that interested, they don’t have to, but I feel their should be the option for everyone.
• For those more interest in the discussion of film, I also propose that we invite guest speakers in additional events that we can organise, whether they be people within the industry, lecturers doing Q&A’s or critics offering their insight. I feel these are all feasibly possible to arrange and I would love if people within the society would help find guest speakers as it would offer even greater opportunities to be a more democratic community.
• On the introduction day, I propose that the event will be more professionally prepared. Though I appreciate the trivia board game we play, it can still feel somewhat quiet and disconnected. My proposition would see us provide food, introduce ourselves to the group and say what they love about cinema (maybe talk about their favourite movie, their favourite movie quote, re-enact their favourite scenes) and then play the game and as the game hasn’t tended to take that long, play charades or something like that. I feel the energy can be elevated and I feel this can all make the society more appealing.
• I would also like to propose that the structure of our months goes from 1 genre to the month with the last requiring a poll, to 1 genre a month with weekly sub-genres (e.g. for women’s month, 1 week could be chick flicks, 1 week women in sports movies with 1 week for Badass-Mofos) with the last requiring a poll again. I also propose that members of the committee recommend their favourite movies in the subgenres via our various social media. I initially had the idea of having weekly polls in order to make the society’s choice as democratic as possible but changed that due to the possibility of too many options, too many mainstream recommendations and the lack of work it would mean the committee would be seen putting in but should that be more popular, I would be more that happy change.
• I would also like to get further information about trigger warnings. I want to make the space as safe and inclusive as possible and so I would like member to inform us (should they feel comfortable) with any triggers they might have. I acknowledge there is a fine balance between censorship of artistic expression and making sure that art can be admired by anybody without ill-consequences and so I will try to make sure no one feels excluded. If movies that have been selected do have triggers, my proposition is that we additionally recommend films that are trigger free for our members to enjoy or even find a way of offering to the show the movies on an online platform ourselves.
• I think it would also be interesting to have a competition event or several. Right now, the most filming the film society actually does is by it’s social media department. I would hope that the film society would encourage people to engage in film as well as create it. I propose monthly competitions based on the genre of the month in which members will make short films based around the genre and submit them. Maybe via social media we can do the same for the subgenres. Then, before each showing on the Mondays, we’ll show the winner. In terms of bigger competitions, I propose one is held in the second semester and that the winner will have their film entered into a more official competition/festival.
• I would also like to provide more food at each showing.
• I would also love to do a film soc secret Santa in December.
• I would like to increase the number of collaborations we do, particularly with groups who tend to be under represented in film (e.g. do a collaboration with the Student LGBTQ+, continue to collaborate with UBM, do a collaboration with e-sports/ gaming society etc.) 
• Most importantly, I would like a system where members of the society can communicate with the committee to talk about what they think work and what doesn’t.

Those are my proposals and this is my campaign. Understand that even if this looks like I am overpromising, I would rather overpromise and still produce a good time then promise an average time and deliver. If I promise Celebrations and get Heroes, that’s still a good time. But if I promise Quality Street and deliver Quality Street then that’s dead. Because no one like Quality Street.

Thank you for your time. The video will be better. There will be a video.