Active Film Viewing Questions

Your experience:

 Did you find the film worthwhile?
 Did the film surprise you with anything
unusual in its story, style, technique, or
implications?
 How did it make you feel?
 What does it make you think about?
 What will you most remember?
Purpose:
 Does anything in the film make you think of
your own experiences?
 Did anything particularly bother you about
the film?
 Do you have any questions for other viewers
about their experience?
 If you could ask the filmmakers a question
about the work, what would you ask them?

 What purpose was the film intended to serve? Do you feel that it fulfilled its purpose?
 Does it entertain, or does it accomplish more than only entertainment?
 Did it seem focused on delivering a particular message or lesson?
 Did it seem designed to persuade audiences on certain issues?

Themes:

 What was the film about?

 How is the film about that? What lines seem most important? What images?
 Do you find that the film offers anything on these themes that you personally have not considered before?
Does the film resonate with you as true, or as misleading?

Quality:

 Consider the technical excellence of the film in aspects such as these:

Screenplay Direction
Acting Production value
Editing Soundtrack
Cinematography Effects
What aspects of this production were its strengths? Weaknesses?

Spirituality:

 Does this film offer any spiritual insights?
 Is the audience led to assume that the world
in the film adheres to any higher laws or
moral order? Is there any suggestion of a
higher power? What is the film’s idea of
“right” and “wrong”?
Story:
 What do the characters value? How do they
demonstrate this? Where do their values
lead them?
 What does the film suggest is meaningful in
life?
 What assumptions does it ask us to make
about the world?

 What were the choices made by the characters, and what were the consequences of those choices?
 What has changed by the end of the film?
 What does the film illustrate?

Filmmaker:

 Does the director have a particularly distinct style? Would you recognize his work in other films?
 What does the director’s style reveal about him or her?