Faculty Profile — Franklin Cham

The mythology of movies

By Meagan Parrish

As MATC’s resident cinema instructor, Franklin Cham is doing something he would have never thought possible. As a young boy, Cham wasn’t even allowed to watch movies.

While growing up in a rural community outside Pittsburgh, the strict religious rules imposed by his mother meant that Cham spent much more time with his nose in a book or watching plays. It wasn’t until he relocated to Madison for graduate school in the 1970s that, with the help of the local film scene, Cham was able to begin catching up on all the film watching he had missed out on.

“I was so entranced. I started going to movies every night of the week sometimes,” he said.

Rather than making him bitter or rebellious, Cham has become a lover of art who knows better than to take it for granted. After 20 years in MATC’s English Department, his appreciation for stories is something that follows him inside the classroom and out.

“There’s a TV and recorder in every room at home,” Cham admitted with a smile. “It’s my life.”

His life is now spent analyzing filmmaking and helping students understand cinematic techniques "rather than content." Cham added that he is careful not to treat film as literature.

Cham has already helped add a History of World Cinema course to MATC’s menu of course offerings, and hopes to bring another cinema course some day. Cham said he loves to “present movements” in cinema history. His favorite movie? A 1970s flick called “ Nashville” by director Robert Altman.

Cham also teaches Classic Mythology, which has many things in common with his cinema courses.

“Movies are the myths of today,” he stated while explaining that like myths, which are a collaboration of many ideas, movies “reflect our times.”

For Cham, these times are a far reach from his rural upbringing. “I don’t talk about growing up on a farm because I don’t think anyone will believe me,” Franklin said when asked if he ever spoke of his early life experiences in class. “I’m very urban. I don’t touch dirt.”

As Cham got older, his mother’s religious zeal faded, so his academic interests never created a problem at home. But his childhood, Cham noted, has given him a “broader perspective on rural and religious life,” that helps him relate to students raised in similar circumstance.

As a veteran instructor of writing and long time lover of art, Cham could be around MATC for a while yet, sharing his bubbly enthusiasm for film and stories.

“I’m not really planning on retiring. I think I’ll just drop dead in the classroom one day in the middle of class,” Cham joked. “But I’ll leave my gradebook in order so someone can just pick it up and finish.”

Meagan Parrish is an MATC journalism student enrolled in the Liberal Studies Program.

(Note: Photo contributed by Franklin Cham)