Film buffs who wish to escape the limited offerings of DeKalb-area movie houses now can discover the alternative cinema presented this season by NIU’s CineClub.

The organization, which has been in existence for 11 years, offers NIU students and faculty a chance to view films they might not ordinarily get a chance to see, said the club’s faculty advisor Jeffrey Chown.

“CineClub is an alternative to the entertainment-type films shown at the (Holmes) Student Center and in the local theaters,” Chown said. “We show more experimental work—European films, documentaries, political films, silent films and older American works.”

CineClub President, Lisa Gosciejew, said, “We want to expose people to the type of film that they may have to think about.” She said there is a problem getting people to see the films, although they would benefit from seeing them.

A nine-member committee chooses the films based on whether or not they have been shown recently on television, or are out on video cassette, Chown said. “We think that if people want to see ‘Beverly Hill’s Cop,’ that’s fine, but we’re here if they want something more daring.”

One of the film “events” planned for the fall semester is “Cinema From Nicaragua,” which is a series of five documentaries intended to shed light on the real situation in that troubled area.

“This will be the first time CineClub will be showing films from the Third World,” Gosciejew said. “In the past we’ve been more limited to films from the European countries.”

“We’re also having an experimental film night this semester,” Gosciejew added. “On that evening we’ll be showing all non-narrative films, which tend to be more arbitrary and ambiguous than the average movie.”

The films scheduled for that evening include Roman Polanski’s “Two Men In a Wardrobe,” Orson Welles’ “Hearts of Age,” Ralph Steiner’s “H20” and Maya Deren’s “Meshes in the Afternoon.”

Other films to be shown throughout the semester are “Wild in the Streets,” “The Day the Earth Caught Fire” and “Stromboli.