So what movies will students see in their Perspectives courses?
Social issues in film is a popular topic: "Drugs in film seems to be one that comes up every year," Woolf said.
Junior Lauren Vigdor is leading one such course: She is teaching a Perspectives class on Films About Sex, Drugs, and Rock n' Roll with fellow junior Dave Kaminsky.
"We decided to do it because we both particularly like films about music and originally bonded over 'The Blues Brothers,'" said Vigdor. "And we also like the depiction of drug scenes in movies," Vigdor said. "We thought that there would be a lot to teach from them."
Vigdor and Kaminsky plan on screening "Sid and Nancy" (1986), "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" (1998), and "Almost Famous" (2000), a film Kaminsky is particularly looking forward to teaching. "It was such a big blockbuster hit, I want to see if we can get the kids to look beyond what they saw the first time when they watched it," Kaminsky said
Other Perspectives leaders have focused their topics on a specific style of movie, rather than a theme. "We have one this year that I'm looking forward to that is on non-linear films," Woolf said.
That class is being taught by juniors Sarah Jacknis and Katie Ray. "I had a bunch of movies that I liked and I thought about what was similar between them, how I could get a topic out of them that joined them," said Jacknis. "And I noticed that they all had weird structures to them and that I could tie them all together as non-linear."
Some of the films Jacknis and Ray plan on screening are "Memento" (2000), "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" (2004), "Mulholland Drive" (2001), "Pulp Fiction" (1994), and "The Rules of Attraction" (2002).
Another non-linear film the two plan on showing is the little-known "Arizona Dream" (1993). "I have a bootleg copy of it," Jacknis said. "It's not actually available in the U.S. on Region 1 DVD players."
