Film Interview

Deborah Hardy, from Gainesville, Ga, 64, is a white female who has grown to have a love of movies. When she was younger, going to the theaters was a privilege, not something she got all to experience all the time. She stated, “going to see a movie in theaters was expensive. I don’t remember the first movie I saw, but I know it was at a drive-in-theater. I went with a guy, and it’s similar to theaters today. There was a concession stand, but we obviously had to walk a little bit to get to it, and we ordered popcorn and a coke”.

When asked about her experience with video stores, she says, “When I was raising my children, we’d visit the video stores. We’d always have the hardest time trying to choose a film, and we’d usually leave with multiple ones because the decision was too hard, and no one could agree.” She goes on to say, “my children love films just as much as I do. I remember when Star Wars and Jaws were released. For me, it wasn’t my taste. I would watch it, but only because my children wanted to. My son absolutely loved Star Wars, and it became an obsession of his. Now he works in the film industry, working on sets, doing whatever needs to be prepared to get the set ready for filming.”

Hardy stated that even though she couldn’t afford to go to a movie theater often when she was younger, she acquired a love for films. “I love all films”, she exclaims, “but I tend to gravitate towards love stories and romance, similar to the Notebook. But I’m a strong Christian, so I always go and watch any faith-based films that come out in theaters”. But her love for films didn’t just stay with attending theaters, she then became collecting movies. “I typically watch films on dvds, and I have grandchildren, so I always buy every Disney movie that is released. My husband and I started collecting films, starting with VHS tapes, and then when DVD’s came out, I rebought all of them on DVDs and now continue with this. We have hundreds of DVDs collected, and we plan to continue this. It’s something we have loved doing, and our grandchildren love it as well, knowing that they can find almost any movie they want to watch on our shelves”.

In closing, I asked her how things have changed for her and her film experience over the years, and she states, “my film experience has changed a lot over the past twenty years. I used to only go to the theaters as a privilege. Now, I only go maybe once every six months, and sometimes more often, just depends on if a film is released that I really want to see. But I typically wait, and buy it on DVD, and have family come over to my house, and we watch the movie together. It’s a fun family tradition. But the last film I saw was The Life I Live, about Joey Fleek. I just couldn’t wait for that to come out on DVD, so I made a trip to the theater. Everyone has their own film experience, and I think mine was okay, because I obviously found a love for films, looking at my shelves with hundreds of movies. Even though I didn’t get to always go to the theaters, I did find a love for it”.