What Makes Us Tick
What Makes Us Tick? is a film and discussion series that explores the mysteries of human behavior. The 2010 series will focus on personal change.
How do you react when confronted with values, lifestyles, and viewpoints that differ from your own? Are your personal biases triggered? Do you yield to a fear of the unknown and societal prejudices, thus rejecting any possibility of changing your views? Or do you explore these differences, and embrace the potential for change? The three films in this year’s series feature characters in these very situations. The stories chart the introduction of new ideas to the characters, their responses, and ultimately, the personal transformations each character experiences. Each screening will conclude with an audience discussion about growth and change led by a local mental health practitioner.
The film and discussion series will presented at the Swan Ballroom, Atlantic Sands
The series will be opened by Eric Kafka (see below) who will provide a series overview and introduce the individual film discussion leaders.
Flawless
7:00 PM, Friday, January 15, 2010
Robert De Niro stars in this film as conservative, homophobic security guard Walt Koontz, who suffers a debilitating stroke during a robbery. To gain recovery of his paralyzed larynx, Walt is ordered to take therapeutic singing lessons. Luckily his neighbor, Rusty Zimmerman (Philip Seymour Hoffman), can provide the singing lessons. But, Rusty happens to be a drag queen who despises bigoted straight people. Despite their opposing outlooks on life, the two share more than a few similarities, and soon they find common ground. [1999, Runtime: 112 min., Rated:R]
Discussion Leader: Kathryn Harris
Tickets (non-refundable): $16 for Film Society members, $18 for non-members.
Includes complimentary wine, coffee, and desserts served prior to the screening.
Elegy
2:00 PM, Saturday, January 16, 2010
This film, based on the Philip Roth novel The Dying Animal, features a stellar cast including Ben Kingsley, Penelope Cruz, Patricia Clarkson and Dennis Hopper. Elegy charts the passionate relationship between a celebrated college professor (Kingsley) and a young woman (Cruz) whose beauty both ravishes and destabilizes him. As their intimate connection transforms them more than either could imagine, a charged sexual contest evolves into an indelible love story. With humanistic warmth, wry wit and erotic intensity, this film explores the power of beauty to blind, to reveal, and to transform.[2008, Runtime: 112 min., Rated: R
Discussion Leader: Roy Fitzgerald
Tickets (non-refundable): $16 for Film Society members, $18 for non-members.
Includes complimentary wine, coffee, and desserts served prior to the screening
The King of Masks
2:00 PM, Sunday,
January 17, 2010
On the streets of Szechuan Province in the 1930s, the aged Wang is the King of Masks, a renowned street performer and wizard of the venerable art of mask magic. He longs to pass on his technique, but custom stipulates he can only hand down his craft to a male successor, and Wang has no children. Anxious to preserve his unique art, Wang buys an impoverished 8-year-old orphan on the black market. Wang joyously accepts the child as his grandson and heir, and begins to instruct the child in his craft. But when the child is forced to disclose a dreaded secret, Wang faces a choice between filial love and societal tradition. [1996, Runtime: 91 min., Not rated, subtitled]
Discussion Leader: Perrin Smith
Tickets (non-refundable): $16 for Film Society members, $18 for non-members.
Includes complimentary wine, coffee, and desserts served prior to the screening
Eric Kafka
Eric Kafka has been a psychologist for nearly 40 years. He has worked for Community Mental Health, higher education, nursing homes and senior communities in Maryl and.Upon moving toDelaware, Eric worked for the Lewes Convalescent Center and currently continues his private practice in Lewes DE.
Kathryn Harris
Kathryn Harris has been a Clinical Social Worker in the Delaware area for 35 years specializing in issues related to personal transition, women's experience, trauma and post-traumatic stress. She performed Critical Incident Stress Debriefings following 9/11 and participated in a mental health/disaster relief team in Sri Lanka following the tsunami of 2004.
Roy Fitzgerald
Roy G. Fitzgerald, M.D. is a psychiatrist and chainsaw artist who has recently retired to Lewes DE. He has published research in many fields including aging, blindness, and bipolar disorder. In addition, he has moderated film program discussions for the annual conventions of the American Psychiatric Association.
Perrin Smith
Perrin Smith is a licensed clinical social worker with a private practice in Lewes. She has been a child/family therapist for 32 years.
