NEWS

The Davidson Film Club board has now selected the five films that will be included in our 24th series (July-November 2024) at the Armour Street Theatre in Davidson. Short descriptions of all the films are given below (and on our up-dated website home page.

Subscriptions to the new series can be made on our up-dated home page by using the PayPal buttons that allow you to pay with your own credit card. We are a not-for-profit organization run by volunteers, which enables us to maintain our moderate pricing of $7 per film for members. The PayPal button on the left is for one person ($35), the button on the right for two people ($70), so please be mindful of that if you subscribe this way. These instructions are reiterated on our home page, but people have occasionally used the wrong button!

Otherwise, checks can always be sent to the “Davidson Film Club,” P.O. Box 32, Davidson, NC 28036.

Space is limited at the Armour Street Theatre, so we have to cut off memberships when we reach the maximum, as has happened with all our recent series. Please subscribe as soon as possible to guarantee your seat. Walk-ins to individual films (non-members) will, as always, be welcome, still at only $9.

All this being said, please find below the films in the new series.

Alan Singerman
President, Davidson Film Club
(704) 231-6736

July 20: Atom Egoyan, The Sweet Hereafter (Canada, 1997, 1h52)

A small community is torn apart by a tragic accident which kills most of the town’s children. A lawyer visits the victims’ parents in order to profit from the tragedy by stirring up their anger and launching a class action suit against anyone they can blame. The community is paralyzed by its anger and cannot let go. All but one young girl, left in a wheelchair after the accident, who finds the courage to lead the way toward healing.

Discussion leader: Dr. Carole Kruger, Prof. of French and Francophone Studies at Davidson College, specialist in Canadian literature and culture.

August 17: Wim Wenders, Perfect Days (Japan, 2023, 2h04)

Hirayama seems utterly content with his simple life as a cleaner of toilets in Tokyo. Outside of his very structured everyday routine he enjoys his passion for music and for books. And he loves trees and takes photos of them. A series of unexpected encounters gradually reveal more of his past. A deeply moving and poetic reflection on finding beauty in the everyday world around us.

Discussion leader: Lawrence Toppman, former award-winning film critic at The Charlotte Observer (August 17).

Sept. 14: Roberto Benigni, Life is Beautiful (Italy, 1997, 1h56)

In 1930s Italy, a carefree Jewish waiter-turned-bookseller named Guido starts a fairy tale life by courting and marrying a lovely woman named Dora. Guido and Dora have a son named Joshua and live happily together until the forced deportation of the town’s Jewish population in cattle cars. Dora, while not required to be deported, volunteers to leave with her family, and they are all forced to live in a concentration camp. In an attempt to hold his family together and help his son survive the horrors of a concentration camp, Guido imagines that the Holocaust is a game and that the grand prize for winning is a tank.

Discussion Leader: Dr. Scott Denham, Charles A. Dana Professor of German Studies and a Holocaust specialist.

Oct. 19: Lulu Wang, The Farewell (China, 2019, 1h40)

After learning that her family’s beloved matriarch, Nai Nai, has been given mere weeks to live, Chinese-born, U.S.-raised Billi returns to Changchun to find that her family has decided to keep the news from Nai Nai. While the family gathers under the joyful guise of an expedited wedding, Billi rediscovers the country she left as a child, and is forever changed by her grandmother’s wondrous spirit.

Discussion leader: Dr. Yongyue Chen, born and raised in China, a U.S resident since 1998. Currently a psychiatrist at Behavioral Health Davidson.

Nov. 23: Kamila Andini, Yuní (Indonesia, 2021, 1h35) 

Having rejected a marriage proposal and now facing limited options after graduation, Indonesian high-school student Yuni (Arawinda Kirana) finds herself having to define her desires within a society attempting to prescribe her fate. Navigating her burgeoning sexuality and educational prospects while coming to terms with the rigid gender politics with which they collide, Yuni observes her peers and the women around her as they reject or give in to the expectations made of them and the consequences their decisions carry.

Discussion leader: TBD