Courtney Matthews gave “Get Out” audience members small Ziploc bags containing a plastic spoon, cotton ball and bingo card outside the Reitz Union Auditorium on Wednesday night.
During the interactive screening of the film, which criticizes the treatment of blacks by whites, about 20 people followed along with scenes, stirring the plastic spoons along with the protagonist and putting cotton balls in their ears during another scene.
The Reitz Programming Board and Black Graduate Student Organization hosted the screening as an end to Black History Month, said Matthews, the BGSO Black History Month chair. The showing was a way to talk about race relations in the U.S. with a highly celebrated and award-winning film.
“No matter what your race or ethnicity is or how you identify, people can resonate with this movie,” Matthews, 24, said.
The screening was Aliya Miranda’s second time watching the film but first time interacting with it.
“It reminded me of ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show,’” the 21-year-old UF telecommunication senior said. “It was fun to be able to interact to the movie with other people, and I noticed things I didn’t catch the first time.”
After the screening, BGSO held a panel about race relations, diversity and inclusion with Reginald Lane, the associate director of Sorority and Fraternity Affairs, and Patricia Hilliard-Nunn, an African American studies professor.
Solange Douglas, the Reitz Union associate director for programs, said the discussion was unusual considering the film came out a year ago.
“I think it’s also our desire to start that conversation and continue that conversation forward,” she said. “That panel piece adds that to the discussion so that way you watch the film, you experience the film in a new way.”
This image released by Universal Pictures shows Daniel Kaluuya in a scene from, "Get Out." (Universal Pictures via AP)
