FAMILY AND MEMORY: A FILM FESTIVAL

Here’s a scene: a family gathers around the dinner table, together for the first time in a long time. Someone starts to tell a family story. But then, as always, someone jumps in with a correction. Then someone else interrupts to tell the whole story again from their perspective. Soon, everyone is talking all at once, each telling their own version of the tale from their own imperfect memories, with all the frustration and joy of family gatherings. Family memories color how we treat our parents, what we teach our children, and how we listen to our elders. Each film in this series asks a new question about family and memory. How do we learn the truth about our family stories? What can we really know about our childhood? How does lineage and cultural memory affect our day to day lives? And how do we grapple with a lifetime of family memories in the last stages of our lives? The Essex Library will host film screenings on September 1, 8, 22 and 29 at 7 p.m., with discussion following each film with Zay Amsbury.

The Stories We Tell, 2013. Sarah Polley. Canada. PG-13.
In this intricately structured, genre-bending film, Oscar-nominated writer/director Sarah Polley elicits stories from her eccentric, charming, fiercely loving family. Through these candid, contradictory stories, Polley attempts to find the truth about her parent’s complicated marriage.

Amacord. 1973. Frederico Fellini. Italy. R.
For the legendary film Amacord, Fellini recreated his childhood home of Rimini, and filled it with vibrant scenes from his youth. Rolling out a wild array of warmly observed comic characters, Fellini affectionately evokes vanished youth through the innocent eye of nostalgia, even as he satirizes the establishment of a country fallen into fascism.

To Sleep With Anger. 1990. Charles Burnett, dir. PG.
When an enigmatic and charming old friend arrives in a South Central Los Angeles family’s home, his presence casts a strange spell on the family. Tensions are exposed between parents and children, tradition and change, and the present and the past. Charles Burnett’s masterpiece is a rich portrait of family life, steeped in the traditions of African American mysticism and folklore.

Still Walking. 2008. Hirozaku Kore-eda. Japan. Not rated.
Made as a tribute to his late mother, Hirozaku Kore-eda’s Still Walking gives a glimpse into the life of family as they gather for a commemorative ritual. Through scenes of domestic life, quiet conversations, and lively meals, Kore-eda evokes a family’s entire history of old joy and older regrets.

Zay Amsbury is a playwright and educator. He was a writer in residence for the groundbreaking Impact Theatre Company in the San Francisco Bay Area. His produced work includes Sweet Self, The Wake-Up Crew, Lackaday, and An Alan Turing Fantasy. For 15 years he taught screenwriting and playwriting at the California State Summer School for the Arts at the California Institute for the Arts. He holds a B.F.A. in Dramatic Writing from NYU’s Tisch School for the Arts and an M.F.A. in Playwriting from The New School for Drama.

These events are free and open to the public. Registration is requested as seating is limited. For more information or to register, please call the Essex Library at 860-767-1560. The Essex Library is located at 33 West Avenue.