There’s an underground film club in Room 403. 

It is quite literally subterranean, and the room is configured in a way that resembles a bear’s den – cozy and unprejudiced. 

Warm carpet stretches across the ground in an effort to fill the space from corner to corner. Posters of art, anime, and pop culture dot the walls in modest places. 

It’s like a bunker; no windows, practically soundproof, with a Nintendo Switch for dire emergencies and a rationed food supply sitting in the cupboard – organized, immaculate, and anxiously awaiting a hypothetical zombie apocalypse. 

Room 403 is the best kept secret at Air Academy High School. 

On Fridays, when the collective sighs of high school students trail through the halls and out the door, a group of students stay after to run an underground film club in Lower D. It’s not a pastime, or an organized sport, a daycare or a summer camp. Film club is an orderly society of likeminded individuals and starving artists with one common goal: “make good films”. 

“Everything happens fast around here. We get things done,” Aslan Rivenburg said. 

There are editors, actors, directors and technicians. Makeup artists, costume designers, sound engineers, and writers. The club cultivates a strong community where everyone is so remarkably unique that there is no choice but to be yourself. 

“It’s a safe space,” said senior, Karina Gomez. 

“It’s like one big family,” she said. 

Right now, the film club is working on their sophomore film entitled The Seven. It’s a found footage horror film that the actors have been working on for months. 

“We made a movie last year in Film as Literature called Six where six people died. This is like a continuation of that story, just with an extra person,” senior and co-director Delaney Brant explained to me. 

The short film has been a favorite among students. They’ve been able to create something that is “horrific, yet technically beautiful”. It’s been their “passion project”, a creative outlet for students who enjoy storytelling and the visual arts.

Though relatively niche, the film club has spread to all types of audiences, from theater kids to debaters, creative writers and artists. 

In high school, clubs like film clubs can be a way to find joy in everyday life. Extracurriculars are a much needed break from the monotony of academics, and can provide perspectives and experience into more vocational skills, not necessarily taught in a typical school environment. 

“The biggest thing that a club is there for is to help enhance your overall high school experience,” school counselor Sean Brotherton explained. 

“You don’t need to just join every club. Colleges want depth, not necessarily just being a part of a lot of different clubs. If you can find something that you really enjoy and that you’re passionate about, that’s the most important part. It has to be something that’s rewarding to you and recharges you, not something that stresses you out,” he explained.

Independent projects and leadership opportunities make Air Academy’s film club what it is. There are no grades, no tests, and no stress – just films. The club is about “the magic of being able to take something in raw form and bringing it to life.”

“I love it,” Rivenburg said of film club. “These are my people right here.”