Films

The Witch (2016) | Directed by Robert Eggers
FREE; Donations accepted

Viewing facilitated by Jeff Pinnette and Peggy Schick

A devout Puritan family in 1630s New England are exiled from their village, and struggle to survive in their new home situated at the edge of a mysterious forest. The sinister, witching forces in the wilderness emerge silently to terrorize them, first by kidnapping the youngest of their five children. As their life-sustaining crops fail, the clan falls victim to paranoia and fear as they begin to turn on one another, eventually suspecting teenage daughter Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy) of witchcraft. With the vast majority of the dialogue culled from primary sources from the time period, Robert Eggers’ debut feature The Witch is a terrifying glimpse into a family descending into madness. (Synopsis by Daniel Gelb, Rovi)

Smoke Signals (1998) | Directed by Chris Eyre
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Viewing facilitated by Peggy Schick

Smoke Signals is the first feature made by a Native American crew and creative team. Arnold (Gary Farmer) rescued Thomas (Evan Adams) from a fire when he was a child. Thomas thinks of Arnold as a hero, while Arnold’s son Victor (Adam Beach) resents his father’s alcoholism, violence and abandonment of his family. Uneasy rivals and friends, Thomas and Victor spend their days killing time on a Coeur d’Alene reservation in Idaho and arguing about their cultural identities. When Arnold dies, the duo set out on a cross-country journey to Phoenix to retrieve Arnold’s ashes. The two young American Indians leave the reservation to resolve their problems and to find themselves. This well-acted, well-directed and largehearted movie draws on themes of forgiveness and fatherhood. It is based on a couple of short stories (from The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven) by Sherman Alexie, who wrote the script and was personally involved in all aspects of the production.

The Jung-White Letters: A Theatrical Performance (2009)
FREE; Donations accepted

Viewing facilitated by Audrey McMorrow

In 1945, shaken by the terrible revelations of the War that was ending, two men became caught up in a shared mission to transform the spiritual and psychological life of the western world. Driven by this enormous vision, C.G. Jung and Father Victor White, each a master in his field, agreed to work together on the borderlands of psychology and religion. They risked much on the venture. White, especially, risked his career as a Dominican theologian and arguably his life. In time it became clear that, in their irresolvable debate about the problem of evil, they faced a major stumbling block. This argument revealed the true depth of the chasm between their thought-worlds. Their friendship survived many bruises but, with Jung’s Answer to Job and White’s published response to it, the relationship broke almost beyond repair.

The cast includes: Paul Brutsche (C.G. Jung), John Hill (Victor White), Heike Weis (Barbara Robb, the Soror Mystica), Ann Lammers (Narrator). Introduction and discussion by Murray Stein.