Austin LW Movie Discussion: September 2021 Movie Nominations and Voting

[Tim Zook]

Hi all,

We met last Friday to watch Tread, the 2019 documentary about the "Killdozer" event, where a disgruntled metalworker went on a rampage through his town with an armoured bulldozer that he built. The movie had been nominated by Silas at the previous movie discussion night.

For those who aren't familiar with the movie discussion meetings, every month we agree on a movie to watch and then meet to discuss it. All kinds of movies are suggested, documentaries, feature films, cult classics, action movies, dramas, historical films, experimental films, you name it, we watch it. We nominate and vote on which movies will be selected to try to ensure we pick something that most people will enjoy watching and discussing.

In the past, only people who showed up to the movie discussion were allowed to nominate and vote on the next movie, which was intended to help encourage more people to show up to get a vote. However given the chronic lack of attendance that we've had the past few months this appears like it may not be the best system currently. At our most recent movie discussion we discussed how we wanted to organize movie discussion in the future, and we agreed to open up nomination and voting up to the entire group via the mailing list, so now is your chance to vote on what movie you want us to watch next as a group.

Click here to submit a nomination: https://forms.gle/qj8SH74sYTYfwwYYA The nominations will be open until 8AM on Wednesday, Sept. 1st. After that a poll will be created from the movie nominations submitted and we will all be able to vote on the next movie. The voting for the next movie will close at 8AM on Saturday, Sept. 4th, at which point we will all have several weeks to watch the movie before the discussion meeting is held.

Additionally, we will also be voting on when we will be holding the discussion meetings going forward, in order to attempt to find a time that will work better for more of the group. You can vote on when you want to hold the movie discussion meetings here: https://strawpoll.com/3881d1421

Looking forward to watching more cool movies with you all!

~Tim

[Tim Zook]

Hi all,

Reminder that today is the last day to nominate movies, we're still low on nominations so submit your entry now! I forgot to include it in my last email but you can see the current nominations here.

Please let me know if people would prefer to extend the nomination time, I just arbitrarily picked a duration that I thought was reasonable but I'm open to feedback.

Thanks,

~Tim

[Tim Zook]

Hi all,

Nominations are in, and voting has begun! Vote for which movies you would watch and show up to the discussion for: https://strawpoll.com/7596cwp43

Thanks,

~Tim

[Tim Zook]

Hi all,

So apparently we have a 3-way tie between Gattaca, The Celebration, and Tenet. I've created a runoff poll to decide this where everyone gets just one vote to help try to avoid ties this time. It will close at 8AM on Monday: https://strawpoll.com/x9h8r74aj

Thanks,

~Tim

[Tim Zook]

Well, we've made some progress at least. We now have a two-way tie between Gattaca and Tenet. Given that there were no votes for the third option, running another poll does not seem like it would help decide this; Without more voters or someone changing their vote, the same result would just happen again.

I hope everyone agrees with me that this process has gone on long enough and a decision should be made to let us proceed. So, as one of the people who voted for Tenet, I will retroactively change my vote to Gattaca in order to resolve this tie. Therefore Gattaca will be the next movie we will watch. Please let me know if anyone has any issues with this resolution or if you think there are better ways for us to proceed with the voting in the future.

What: Gattaca (1997)

When: Friday, September 24th, 2021, at 7:00 pm

How: https://meet.jit.si/LWAustinMovieNight

Gattaca is a 1997 American dystopian science fiction film. The film presents a biopunk vision of a future society driven by eugenics where potential children are conceived through genetic selection to ensure they possess the best hereditary traits of their parents. The film centers on Vincent Freeman, played by Ethan Hawke, who was conceived outside the eugenics program and struggles to overcome genetic discrimination to realize his dream of going into space.

Given advancements in CRISPR and embryo selection it is likely we will have similar tech in the future. I think we could have an interesting discussion about how it could affect society and if the movie presents a realistic depiction of what could happen.

Thanks,

~Tim

[Tim Zook]

Hi all,

My apologies, I forgot about the poll for the meeting time. Please ignore the time and date in my previous email, that will be changed.

It looks like we have a tie between Monday nights and Thursday nights for the new meeting time. I've created a new poll here for the runoff vote for that: https://strawpoll.com/3457cgw7z The voting will close next Saturday at 8am. Once we have a decision on which new day we will use I will send an updated time and date for the meeting.

Thanks,

~Tim

[Tim Zook]

Hi all,

Voting is in and Thursday Evenings will be the new meeting time for movie discussions! Please see the updated schedule for the next meeting below:

What: Gattaca (1997)

When: Thursday, September 23rd, 2021, at 7:00 pm

How: https://meet.jit.si/LWAustinMovieNight

Gattaca is a 1997 American dystopian science fiction film. The film presents a biopunk vision of a future society driven by eugenics where potential children are conceived through genetic selection to ensure they possess the best hereditary traits of their parents. The film centers on Vincent Freeman, played by Ethan Hawke, who was conceived outside the eugenics program and struggles to overcome genetic discrimination to realize his dream of going into space.

Given advancements in CRISPR and embryo selection it is likely we will have similar tech in the future. I think we could have an interesting discussion about how it could affect society and if the movie presents a realistic depiction of what could happen.

Thanks,

~Tim

[Silas Barta]

Don't forget, this is tomorrow!

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[Silas Barta]

Starting now!

https://meet.jit.si/LWAustinMovieNight