Other filters are related to more recent events and the various roles you are playing in your life at that time. If you saw The Sound of Music after recently being widowed, your reaction to Captain von Trapp might be different than in previous viewing of this movie. These more recent filters are the main causes of unique experiences during various viewings of the same film.

The question "If you`ve seen the movie before, how was your experience of the movie different from past viewing(s)? What struck you the same or differently?" is included to help you examine your filters. Often by thinking about these filters, movies can help you reflect your own growth and change over time, as well as how current situations are shaping you.

Creating Group Conversation

While you can do the first two tasks by yourself, I`m guessing you often watch movies with other people, so it`s natural to consider having a conversation with others about a movie.
Of course, this happens naturally already, either with the people you watched the movie with or around the coffee pot when you all realize you`ve all seen the same movie.

Since conversations about movies are natural, all I am suggesting is that you consciously extend and/or facilitate the discussion so that everyone can take lessons and insights for their own lives from the fiction you`ve experienced on film.

This may be as simple as you interjecting questions from the reflective question list into the normal movie banter, or it might be even more intentional where people agree ahead of time to extend the entertainment of the movie into the education that can be derived from it.

Either way, everyone wins!

In the second case, if you are leading the conversation, the best way to begin is to simply tell people that the goal is to learn from the experience of the movie. Let them know that you want this to be fun, and encourage them to really listen to each other.

Encourage them to approach the conversation with a spirit of inquiry, not of debate.

Conversations usually aren`t very fulfilling when everyone has the same opinion, so encourage people to share their thoughts, even if they seem "way out" or different from the opinions of others. When you set up the conversation that way, you are well on your way to a great interchange and much new learning for everyone.

Potential Pointer: Movies are a part of our lives, whether you watch several a week or haven`t been to the theater in years. Because movies provide a rich sensory experience of a story, they provide a wonderful platform to learn when you take the time to intentionally extract lessons from them.

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