The English Press Club reached out to Sneha Singh, the coordinator of MATRIX, the Film and Literature Society on campus, for more insights on the work MATRIX has lined up for APOGEE.

The club will be conducting two events for APOGEE, a midnight movie screening at Rotunda (Another Round, dir. Thomas Vinterberg) and a book sale in collaboration with the Department of Paper Evaluation and Presentation, called BookChor. 

The movie screening is something they are very excited about. It’s scheduled for April 10 from 12 midnight to 2 AM. They went through a fairly rigorous process to choose a movie that everyone watching would be equally engaged in. Factors such as no obscenity, no nudity, duration, and language concerns had to be taken care of. 

Sneha proceeded to explain how BookChor works. MATRIX will have a stall set up in a tent in the FD-2 parking space throughout the fest, everyday from 12 PM to 1 AM, where people can go and buy books at a lower price. 

She mentioned that Matrix conventionally holds a quiz during APOGEE, one which was also held during its online edition last year. This year, however, the quiz was not held due to multiple quizzes already being held throughout the fest by other clubs. In spite of the quiz being pitched, Sneha believes that events which were unique to Matrix were prioritised over more general events like quizzing.

Sneha further talked about how Matrix is an inclusive club, where everyone can come to voice their thoughts and bond over literature and cinema. They hold Open Mics and Book Introductions and Reviews as well, which are attended on occasion by professors as well.

When asked for her thoughts about this year’s APOGEE theme and how Matrix has integrated it with the work they are doing for the fest, Sneha acknowledged that as a literature and cinema club, there is not much that can be done for a technical fest. However, she emphasised on the inclusive nature of the club and the events it conducts. She mentioned that they also tried to screen a science fiction movie, but since they either appealed to very niche audiences or crossed the time limit, they had to cancel the idea. 

Sneha said that although she found managing multiple commitments on campus to be fairly hard, the club was a very supportive community, where everyone was willing to help out. In a nutshell, she believes that everyone will find something they enjoy in the events organised by Matrix and encourages everyone to attend them.