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First Unitarian Film Series
Free.
7 p.m. on the second Monday of each month (except July and August).
Enter by the door from the 8th St. parking lot (at the side of the building).
Hosted by Ben Lackie, filmmaker and film aficianado, the First Unitarian Film Series presents films which you aren't likely to see at the local multiplex. These are films that are meant to stimulate discussion, and at the same time give an overview of the history of motion pictures, and the artists who make them. You will love this series if you are someone who realizes that watching a movie should be more than a passive experience, and you are willing to freely express your own feelings and opinions following every screening.
Each month, Ben Lackie introduces the film being shown, and tells a little about the artist(s) who made the film. Here's a brief sample of one of Ben's introductions to one of the films:
Sometimes we can feel grief for someone we've never met. That is the kind of grief I experienced on Sunday, October 21, 1984, when Francois Truffaut died of an incurable brain tumor at the age of fifty-two. Prior to his death he had set a goal for himself. That goal was to make thirty films in his lifetime, and he often had four films at a time in various stages of development. He truly believed that a man didn't die until his work was finished. With three quarters of those thirty films completed, his end came much too soon. It was Francois Truffaut's films that gave me the most pleasure as a filmgoer. He had intelligence, grace, and unbounded enthusiasm for the art and craft of filmmaking.
Tonight's film is different from all his others. In this one he took a great deal of pleasure in mixing things up, challenging the way films were constructed, changing genres in midstream so to speak. By breaking away from the formal narrative structure, he paved the way for filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino.
As a critic and as a filmmaker, Truffaut was always "for the artist, the artist made fun of, the artist people sneered at -- even sometimes with naivete, even when the film isn't worth defending." In his own films he attempted to define the connection between the head and the heart, and the part which luck, or fate if you will, plays in our lives. He agreed with Jean Renoir's line, "What is terrible on this earth is that everybody has his reasons." Because he believed in what he was doing, listened to his own instincts, and took chances, he was in my opinion a great conjurer whose films were often magic.
If you believe in this kind of magic, Ben Lackie would like to extend an invitation to you to attend one of the film nights at First Unitarian. "Try it once," says Ben. "You may like it. If not, you'll lose no more than a couple of hours." Admission is free and so is the popcorn.
(The terms of our license to show movies does not allow us to publicize the titles of the films being shown.)