When senior Lissa Deonarain tears the ticket stub of the next moviegoer in line at the Film Streams theater, she feels a sense of camaraderie with the Omaha art scene.

What began as a vehicle for Deonarain to get service learning hours (per the suggestion of her friend and Westside alumni Ruby Twedt) slowly grew into a love for the theater itself and cinema.

“[Through volunteering at Film Streams] I learned about a lot more movies I wouldn’t have otherwise known about, which is really cool, because some of them are really awesome,” Deonarain said.

Deonarain started volunteering at Film Streams during her freshman year, and continues to volunteer there as a senior.

Meanwhile, fellow Westside senior Camile Messerley also volunteers at Film Streams, thanks to the suggestion of Deonarain.

“When I was a sophomore I started volunteering [at Film Streams],” Messerley said. “When I started doing it I was really close to finishing my service hours, so I did it for service hours at first, but then I started watching more movies.”

When it comes to the actual work at hand, volunteers take ticket stubs for three hour sessions, and can either use those hours towards service learning, or towards a free movie ticket.

Both Deonarain and Messerley are in unison when it comes to the positive impact volunteering at Film Streams has made on them.

“When I first started volunteering there I already liked more independent movies, but I didn’t really go out and look for those that much,” Messerley said. “The great thing with Film Streams is they bring in so many great movies that you wouldn’t normally see, but might hear about. It’s a really cool experience.”