Written for The Argo by Gianni Palumbo

Community engagement is a huge aspect to the college experience. Here at Stockton, there are tons of ways to get involved, meet people, and build your own community. One of the opportunities for students to find their people is to attend on-campus events, and one of the best recurring events are Stockton Movie Nights. I mean, who doesn’t love a movie?

As a life-long cinephile, I’ve met some of my closest friends while attending (or even simply discussing) movies. I also firmly believe that film is one of the best ways to experience different cultures. I myself am a huge advocate and fan of watching cinema from all over the world. With that in mind, Stockton Movie Nights are a great way for students to celebrate different cultures alongside being a great community builder.

I sat down with Parth Thakkar, one of Stockton’s Student Life coordinators, to discuss the behind
the scenes of Stockton’s Movie Nights and why they are a staple on-campus event. To start, I
wanted to get to know what Thakkar’s relationship is with film and what some of his favorite films
are.

He described himself as a more casual movie-goer with a lot of his favorite movies being
popular blockbusters like Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, and James Cameron’s Avatar
series, but what made me perk up was his love for Bollywood films.

Born and raised in India, he watched a lot of Bollywood movies growing up. He specifically named the 2009 film 3 Idiots, a nearly three hour-long musical comedy epic directed by Rajkumar Hirani, which he appreciates for its coming-of-age relatability.

“It has a really positive message and it sort of talks about being a young person in India and the burden that every young person carries related to education and all the stress that comes with getting good scores, like a good average on your exams and passing.”

We then transitioned into talking about the actual Movie Night events themselves. I wanted to
start with the big picture and asked why Thakkar believed that community engagement and campus
events are so important to the college experience. Being a Stockton alumni, Thakkar said that one of
the things that he noticed as a student was that there was always a big push for getting involved
on campus.

“That didn’t necessarily mean being in leadership roles, but just kind of going to different events, different student organizations, doing sports, going on trips. And, you know, the whole point of that is that you get to meet new people you otherwise wouldn’t meet.”

Thakkar explained that by meeting new people on campus, students will be able to make connections, find commonalities, and can even be introduced to new cultures that you otherwise wouldn’t have known.

Thakkar believes that getting to meet people from different backgrounds, experiences and paths is a great way to expand your knowledge.

He held the same sentiments about their importance as he does with on-campus events in general. With programming, the primary focus is to screen a wide variety of films, some being popular new releases and films that celebrate different cultures or important timely events.

The most recently screened movie for example was the 2025 film Rule Breakers, a true-story film about Afghan girls forming and competing in a robotics team. The movie was chosen to both honor Women’s History Month and to provide a more niche, diverse offering.

“We pick movies that sometimes have a specific reason and sometimes it’s just because that’s what we think students are going to like.”

Thakkar explained that the screening licenses must be obtained through a rental-rights company that
works with the actual film distributors. While costly, these screenings are popular campus events.

To finish off our chat, I asked Thakkar what his go-to movie theater snacks are. His favorites are
M&Ms, Hot-Cheetos-flavored popcorn and a nice crisp Pepsi. I myself am a Snowcaps and Diet Coke kind-of-guy.

Stockton Movie Nights take place on both the Galloway and Atlantic City Campuses. For Galloway, they take place on Thursdays and Saturdays starting at 8:30 p.m.

For Atlantic City, Movie Nights are Wednesdays and Thursdays at 8:30 p.m. They are both are free for all students to enter.

If the movie itself wasn’t enough to entice, students who attend are offered free snacks and giveaways and raffle prizes of Stockton Swag. For more information, students can check out OspreyHub and both paper and digital flyers all around campus.