A new independent movie organization offers residents a chance to escape reality.

Tom Bukowski, a community adviser and a communication graduate student who created the first-year organization, said he created it for two purposes.

“One is to provide residents of the NIU residence halls with a structured activity during the weekends,” Bukowski said. “The other is to introduce a new way to approach the consumption of film and television, and these provide the best opportunity for serious discussion of film while still remaining contemporary.”

The organization focuses on independent and cult films.

Bukowski said independent films are not produced by a major studio.

“They’re usually more adventurous in plot, theme and direction,” he said.

Some examples in the past years are “Juno,” “Little Miss Sunshine,” “Transamerica” and “Lost in Translation,” he said.

Cult films are films that are primarily popular, underground or apart from the mainstream, Bukowski said. “Donnie Darko” and “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” are examples of cult films.

Bukowski said the criteria for television shows is to be self-contained or an event episode.

“They contain a self-contained story – one with a beginning, middle and an end – that the group would be able to follow without having seen the TV series ever before,” he said. “And if it contains a special artistic element, that makes the TV show stand out.”

Group members bring a movie or a television show they want to watch to a meeting. Bukowski then will provide a quiz about the independent film industry or about the previous film. The member who answers the question correctly gets to show their choice, he said.

Michael Kelly, sophomore biological sciences major and member, said he joined the group to support his fellow community adviser and he enjoys movies.

“I love indie movies because they usually aren’t mainstream and they are off the beaten path,” Kelly said. “I also love when big-name actors star in them because I believe it gets them back to their roots on why they decided to become actors in the first place.”

The group meets in the Stevenson Hall Smart Classroom from 2 to 5:30 p.m. every other Sunday.

Editor’s Note: Tom Bukowski is a former design editor for the Northern Star.