The Sessions: Q&A with Writer/Director Ben Lewin, Producer Judi Levine and Actor John Hawkes
By Annette Graham, DC Film Society Member
At a preview screening of The Sessions at AMC's Georgetown Theater on September 27, writer/director Ben Lewin, producer Judi Levine, and actor John Hawkes were present to answer questions. Kevin McCarthy from radio station FOX 5 (WTTG-TV) moderated.
The Sessions is based on the story of poet/writer Mark O'Brien (1949-1999), played by John Hawke, who contracted polio at the age of eight and spent most of his life in an iron lung. Writer/Director Ben Lewin, who also had polio as a child and spent some time in an iron lung, was inspired to make the film when he ran across O'Brien's article On Seeing a Sex Surrogate on the internet. O'Brien's search for love and sex is the topic of the film. As O'Brien wrote in On Seeing a Sex Surrogate, "I fear getting nothing but rejections. But I also fear being accepted and loved. For if this latter happens, I will curse myself for all the time and life that I have wasted." With the help of a sex surrogate (Helen Hunt) and a priest (William H. Macy) O'Brien achives his goal. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award and the Jury Prize for ensemble cast.
Kevin McCarthy: It's rare to see an actor do a perfect physical transformation as well as an emotional transformation for a part. As an actor what is the harder element to do, to transform physically or emotionally for a role?
John Hawkes: I've never had to play a character who had so little physical movement, so I think it probably would lean to the physical side of things being trickier, perhaps.
Kevin McCarthy: Could you explain the ball that you used to contort your body the way you did in the film?
John Hawkes: As you recall, it's mentioned in the script that Mark hasn't seen his penis in 30 years and Helen Hunt's character mentions how his spine is horribly curved, so as an actor you have to honor those things that you see in the script. The props department helped develop a soccerball-sized foam device that would lie midway under the left side of my back. It helped to find the voice for the character and it hurt a lot, so whenever Mark was upset, it wasn't acting really.
Judi Levine: It was a torture ball and he went through torture.
Kevin McCarthy: Ben, I read a quote from you recently that said filmmaking is generally not the most fun aspect. Promoting a movie and being involved is great, but doing the work is stressful. But this movie particularly was the most fun experience you've had making a movie. Why was that?
Ben Lewin: I think one of the reasons was that I was determined not to make it a nightmare for myself. It's perhaps the only movie I remember where there's no one looking over our shoulder, and we weren't spending a lot of money. The actors were really working for the love of it as were most of us. I was determined to relax and enjoy the process. Sadly enough, for a lot of movies, the end result is not as wonderful as you might want it to be and you look to the process for your satisfaction. And I was determined that the process was going to be satisfying, indeed it was and the result even more so.
Kevin McCarthy: When you're behind that camera and watching John perform, were there any moments when you lost yourself as a director and just lost yourself in the scene like we do as the audience and forgot you're even directing a movie at the moment?
Ben Lewin: Very often. In the case of this movie, most of the time. After the first couple of days shooting I felt such confidence in the cast that I thought, "I'm just going to sit back and watch the best theater in the world unfold and every time they want my opinion, I'll pretend to have one. (everyone laughs)
Audience Member: How much did the end product vary from what you wrote?
Ben Lewin: It didn't deviate much except for one element. There were a number of fantasy sequences, one of which came from Mark's own writing. After seeing his therapist initally she told him all about sex surrogates, and he went home and dreamt about what it would be like to have sex therapists in the nursing home, wouldn't that be a wonderful idea? I took this as a cue to create a whole sequence like One Flew Out of the Cuckoo's Nest with a Nurse Ratched who would come on and say, "OK, no more wheelchair basketball, no more television, from now one you're each going to work with a sex surrogate and I want to see results." And then was a whole role of can-can dancers came on. This was tremendous fun to shoot and it was indeed the most expensive scene, but it really belonged in a different movie. What I hadn't anticipated was that when the Helen Hunt character [Cheryl] came into the movie, we started more or less playing the scenes between Mark and Cheryl almost as though they were happening in real time. They had a level of reality that I hadn't anticipated and I realized there just wasn't a place for this kind of fantasy stuff. So that's the main way in which it deviated from the original script. Otherwise it's pretty close.
Audience Member: John, you worked on films where the director was not also the writer. Did you have contact with the writer on other films in getting to know your character?
John Hawkes: It's a wonderful thing to get to work with someone who has actually written the screenplay because they have a unique understanding and they are also directing the piece. I prefer it that way. It isn't always that way. It's more interesting to me and more fun and makes for a better film often times.
Audience Member: Does the actor have access to the writer when the director is not writer, or do they usually drop out of process?
John Hawkes: It depends on the project, sometimes the writer is around. It's different with a normal narrative that is made up from someone's head. There's a lot of leeway. But if it is a historical piece, and a contemporary one like this, it helps to be able to ask questions if you are ever in doubt about betraying the truth of the person who are playing.
Audience Member: What type of research did you do before the movie--about polio, the way patients thought and behaved? Did you talk with Mark's friends and people he knew?
Judi Levine: You may not know this, but Ben had polio as a child so he's got some first hand experience with that. Ben stumbled across Mark O'Brien's essay about seeing a sex surrogate on the internet. His story ends at the point were they separated and Mark felt that his life was going to change. I had some concern about a film story ending at that point. Ben wanted to move forward and started researching and found out that Susan Fernbach was still around and living in northern California. We went up to meet her in January 2007. So we started with Susan; she had the rights to his life story. We had seen the short documentary that had won an Oscar about Mark O'Brien that was directed by Jessica Yu called Breathing Lessons. Ben met Cheryl. Susan was able to connect us with the real Cheryl Cohen- Greene. They met with Cheryl and the process moved forward from there.
John Hawkes: In addition to those things mentioned, I was lucky enough that Mark left behind a great deal of his writing--poetry, essays, articles as a journalist. I read everything I could. He had nearly finished an autobiography, that was finished posthumously I believe called "How I Became a Human Being." You always begin with a script in your preparation. There's a lot that went into it. As an over-preparing actor, I enjoy learning all I can and try to forget everything when Ben would yell "Action" and just be present with the other human being in the room and see what would take place.
Ben Lewin: What I also found fascinating was researching the whole profession of sex surrogancy which I knew nothing about previously and realized that it was one of the phenomena of that time--Berkeley, free love, flower power, post Masters and Johnson and Kinsey--that had given rise to this odd profession of sex surrogancy which had a great deal of legitimacy in that you couldn't find sex surrogates in the back pages of the weekend paper. They were always referred through other therapists, so that was a fascinating by-road as well.
Audience Member: How did you find the exceptional cast?
Ben Lewin: A good starting point is to get yourself a very committed and talented casting director. I think some of them are amongst the unsong heroes and heroines of the business. We had a really passionate and wonderful casting director called Ronnie Yeskel--one of her well known films is Pulp Fiction. I have to give her due credit for calling me one day just after John had gotten his Oscar nomination for Winter's Bone and saying, "This is your man," and being very insistent about it. So I immediately went and watched Winter's Bone and thought, "What, that creepy old guy?" (everyone laughs). Then I watched every episode of "Deadwood" and everything else that John was involved in and realized what a chameleon he was as an actor. When we met we kind of convinced each other that this was going to be a good marriage. When John came onto the film it gave the project buzz and prestige and really opened the door to pretty much every actor in Hollywood. The script was being read by agents. For the part of Cheryl, literally there was a small avalanche of Hollywood's leading ladies wanting the role. Then after Helen came in, for all the other parts we had our pick of whoever was available. Really I have to emphasize that all these actors worked for the love of the project and for no other reason. I would certainly counsel other directors, if they want to get the best work out of actors, just don't pay them. {everyone laughs).
Kevin McCarthy: As producer, director and actor what point on set did this not become a job, but became something you wanted to do emotionally in your life?
John Hawkes: Though you never know exactly what you are getting or doing, you are always hoping for the best as you are shooting. Just meeting Ben was when it became not a job. I hadn't even accepted the role yet. Once it was decided I was the guy, it wasn't just a job. I was very passionate about trying to do a good job with it.
Judi Levine: In my case it was once we met Susan Fernbach and Cheryl Cohen-Greene; they are both extraordinary women. Reading Mark's story and getting to know about those people was very inspiring. Ben was writing and I was doing something else because we've got three kids and a mortgage. For us it was a pleasurable process--that development of a project--you've got to be doing it because you love it otherwise you'd be nuts. Once we got into the whole process of casting and John was on board and it started to really pick up momentum, it was just fun, the whole thing has been fun ever since. We have been incredibly fortunate with this project. It's been fabulous to see the response of the audiences that are seeing it all around the world. It's just great.
Audience Member: How did you determine the tone of the film? Did you always plan to have humor, or did that derived from Mark's personality?
Ben Lewin: It's a very Interesting question to which I don't have a definite answer. The tone is something that really evolved. I never pitched the film as a comedy and still don't. The tone is nothing I was able to calculate at the outset. A crucial part of the process was finding Mark's voice. It's all very well having a body of work and a documentary film, but there still had to be a way that he talked within the context of the script that would define his personality. I think that once I felt comfortable combining his thought processes with my own and feeling that both of us had a kind of absurd view of the world. In particular, Susan put her blessing on this; she was a kind of literary soul mate for the process. I really felt I had permission to give Mark this very sharp wit. So the tone started to emanate from the way he thought. It's pretty much established in his first line, when the cat gives him the itches at the beginning and he says, "Scratch with your mind." There's nothing more absurd. Scratching is a totally physical thing. But somehow he turns it on its head and says, "Scratch with your mind." That in a way establishes a funny and also poetic way of dealing with life which I think was in his character. That was key for me to maintaining the tone and giving myself permission to give the whole film a kind of levity.
John Hawkes: I would add that the first time I met Ben there were several things we agreed upon across the table, which was that Mark should fight self pity. Ben said that Mark should be neither a victim nor a saint, but a human being. I thought humor was there in the script and at the time I thought should we go for honest truest humor we could find every chance we could. Ben agreed and I felt comedy would be a big part of it, not knowing exactly the tone at the outset either.
Audience Member: The repeated shots of the madonna were puzzling.
Ben Lewin: The portrait in his room? To a large extent, it's a reflection of the way Mark lived his life. He was a devout Catholic, he went to church regularly. He had a portrait of the madonna in his room in constant view. It's not an iconography that I tried to impose; I describe myself as a fundamentalist atheist. I felt that a major theme of the film was the paradox of his spirituality and his sexual desires. I think that god or the madonna were regular reference points for him in seeking some kind of spiritual level for what he was doing.
Kevin McCarthy: Can you talk about choice of not having John Hawkes and Helen Hunt meet? Were you trying to create an awkwardness when they meet for first time?
Ben Lewin: It wasn't a calculated thing, but once realizing that John and Helen had never previously met, were not personal friends, had never acted together, andnd given the necessary intimacy of what they were going to do, there was naturally going to be a level of anxiety. You never know how that is going to play into it. I think in our case it was very positive. The scene where she is undressing him and taking off his shirt was unrehearsed, what we were really witnessing was the difficulty of taking a shirt off a person who can't move.
John Hawkes: Helen and I without saying anything decided to try to keep a distance of sorts. Normally if you are going to play opposite someone in a movie and if you are able to, you go to dinner or something like that. We met only through a couple of script conferences with Ben to discuss what we thought was important, what words might change, our lines, or questions about lines. It was great that we shot the Sessions scenes in chronological order because you saw our relationship develop on camera, as Ben says.
Audience Member: Did you find it difficult to keep yourself still, and not reflexively move your arm, for example when Helen Hunt is undressing you?
John Hawkes: You have to fight the impulse to help. It was an interesting challenge to be lifeless from the neck down. It was hard not to help Helen Hunt to undress me (everyone laughs).
Audience Member: Did you plan the voiceover to go with each scene?
Ben Lewin: I didn't know what degree of voiceover I was going to have apart from the odd line at the beginning. I don't like voiceover for the most part in movies. However, while I was editing, and in a quite late stage of editing, I revisited the documentary Breathing Lessons and particularly noted how much Mark's poetry was used to narrate that story and felt that that was what I wanted to do to highlight particular moments. So as a result of that last pass that the editor and I made, we used about five of his poems and at the last minute re-thought the rhythm of the movie somewhat in order to integrate those poems. And I'm very glad that we did.
John Hawkes: There was some poetry from the very first draft I remember, but as you say a lot more came in.
Ben Lewin: It said more and more each time I used it.
Audience Member: Do you have a favorite anecdote from the movie?
John Hawkes: This isn't necessarily a favorite story from the film but struck me a few days ago. It was interesting to be such a still figure. I was working on physical stillness and I noticed sometimes between takes I would be lying there while they were moving lights and camera and people would forget that I was a human being and set costumes, props, sandwiches right on top of me as I was lying on the gurney I would become a piece of the furniture.(everyone laughs).
Ben Lewin: We were all very worried, cast and crew, about nudity. The first scene that involved nudity was the ritual bath scene. Typically when you are doing a nude scene, the crew goes very solemn, it's usually an awful atmosphere, everyone is serious, humorless and you can't wait until it's over. I remember the moment when Helen first dropped her robe, every guy on the crew kind of gasped--inwardly, silently. However, Rhea Perlman who played the attendant just called out spontaneously, "Wow what a body!" (everyone laughs). Which really broke the ice, it was the perfect comment from the perfect person and it broke the ice for the rest of the movie and made life much easier for us all around.
Judi Levine: For me it was after we had done everything. This was very much a family affair. Our eldest daughter worked on the film with us in production and our son gave us advice about music and the little girl running on the beach in the flashback scene is our youngest daughter who is only 12 now. The most memorable thing has been the day we had the premiere at Sundance which was quite extraordinary. We had no idea at that point, no one had seen the film except people who were associated with it in some way and only a very limited number of them. So going into a theater that had 1270 people watching it for the first time was pretty nerve-wracking. And at the end of it when we had two standing ovations and we sold the film to Fox Searchlight and signed the paper at 1:30 in the morning, that was a pretty extraordinary day and for me that was something I had never anticipated and will never forget.
The Sessions is scheduled to open in DC on October 26.
You can see the 35 minutes documentary film Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O'Brien (Jessica Yu, 1996) here.
Calendar of Events
FILMS
American Film Institute Silver Theater
The "AFI Latin American Film Festival," now celebrating its 23rd year, showcases the filmmaking from Latin America and includes films from Spain and Portugal. The festival ends October 10.
The "DC Labor FilmFest" runs from October 12-28. Titles include American Teacher, Burn: One Year on the Front Lines to Save Detroit, Adventureland, Office Space, Black Legion, Boxcar Bertha, Billy Elliot, Trash Dance, The Pajama Game, Newsies and Morning Glory.
"Noir City DC: The 2012 Film Noir Festival" (October 20-November 1) includes great classic noir and more obscure titles. Films include Deadline USA, Key Largo, Dark Passage, The Great Gatsby, Underworld, This Gun For Hire, Crossfire, Thieves' Highway, The Breaking Point, Brute Force, Naked Alibi, The Naked City, The Lady from Shanghai, 99 River Street, Gilda, Three Strangers and T-Men. Many films are presented in new preserved 35mm prints.
"Halloween on Screen" is a collection of films for Halloween, including the great silent classic Nosferatu with live music accompaniment by Not So Silent Cinema. Other titles are Shaun of the Dead, Carrie, The Ghost Breakers, Grindhouse and Possession. The series starts October 17 and runs through November 4.
"Spooky Movie International Horror Film Festival" is now in its seventh year and showcases new horror cinema from around the world. In addition to film screenings there is a Spooky Movie Local Filmmakers Summit moderated by Eduardo Sanchez of Blair Witch fame. Several filmmakers will be in attendance; see the website for more details.
Continuing with the AFI's Halloween/Spooky series is an "Alien Retrospective" with showings of Alien, Aliens, Alien 3, Alien Resurrection and Prometheus.
The "Kids Euro Festival 2012" runs from October 17-November 13. Titles in October include Zarafa, 7 Brothers and Ivan's Dream.
"Milos Forman" series has one last film in October: Valmont.
Three classic silent films are The Last Command (Josef von Sternberg, 1928), The Overcoat (Grigori Kozintzev, 1926) and The Man With a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929). All will have live music accompaniment by the Alloy Orchestra.
The opera on film for October is "L'Italiana in Algieri" performed by the Teatro Comunale di Bologna and the ballet on film for October is "La Sylphide" performed by the Bolshoi Ballet, "Move to Move" by the Nederlands Dans Theater and "L'Altra Meta del Cielo" by the Teatro all Scala.
Freer Gallery of Art
The Freer takes part in the 13th Annual DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival on October 5 at 7:00pm with Mrs. Judo: Be Strong, Be Gentle, Be Beautiful (Yuriko Gamo Romer, 2012), a documentary about the highest-ranked woman in judo.
On October 21 at 2:00pm is a film and performance event. I Was Born But... (Yasujiro Ozu, 1932) will be narrated by Ichiro Kataoka, one of the few contemporary performers still carrying on the "benshi" tradition, providing live narration at film screenings. Ichiro Kataoka will answer questions after the film.
Beginning October 26 and ending November 3 is the "First China Onscreen Biennial" a collection of new and classic Chinese films. Titles include Beijing Flickers (Zhang Yuan, 2012) on October 26 at 7:00pm.
National Gallery of Art
"A Sense of Place: Frantisek Vlacil" highlights the Czech director's best known epics. On October 7 at 2:00pm is The Devil's Trap (1962); on October 7 at 4:30pm is the premiere of a new restoration of Marketa Lazarova (1967) and on October 13 at 2:00pm is The Valley of the Bees (1968).
"Shostakovich and the Cinema" features films with scores by Dmitri Shostakovich which is presented in association with PostClassical Ensemble's Interpreting Shostakovich festival. On October 20 at 2:30pm is King Lear (Grigori Kozintsev, 1971); on October 21 at 4:00pm is Hamlet (Grigori Kozintsev, 1964); on October 28 at 4:30pm is Five Days, Five Nights (Lew Arnstam, 1960). Two more in November. All films have discussion and some have musical preludes.
Special events include Journey to Italy (Roberto Rossellini, 1954) on October 13 and 14 at 4:30pm, The Patsy, a cineconcert with Ben Model accompanying the silent film on piano on October 27 at 2:00pm; and "Ernie Kovacs: Video Art for the Intimate Vacuum" on October 27 at 4:00pm, a collection of early sketches. Three Kovacs historians will lead a discussion after the program.
National Museum of the American Indian
The daily films for October are Pelq’ilc/Coming Home (Helen Haig-Brown, 2009) shown with Mom 'n' Me (Helen Haig-Brown, 2010) at 12:30pm every day. Shown at 3:30pm every day is Cry Rock (Banchi Hanuse, 2010) shown with Spelling Bee (Zoe Leigh Hopkins, 2010).
Museum of American History
"The Classic Film Festival" in the new Warner Theater shows several Civil War films. On October 19 at 6:30pm is Glory (Edward Zwick, 1989). On October 20 at 1:00pm is Gettysburg (Ronald F. Maxwell, 1993). On October 20 at 6:30pm is Gods and Generals (Ronald F. Maxwell, 2003). On October 21 at 1:00pm is Gone with the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939). All have pre-screening discussion led by NPR commentator Noah Andre Trudeau.
On October 28 at 1:00pm is a special screening of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Milos Forman), part of the "Mutual Inspirations Festival 2012-Milos Forman, celebrating Forman's 80th birthday and his work. Following the screening, Pavel Jech, and others will discuss the Czech and US inspirations of the film.
Smithsonian American Art Museum
On October 11 at 7:00pm is the DC premiere of Mark Lombardi: Death Defying Acts of Art and Conspiracy (Mareike Wegener, 2011), a documentary about the Mark Lombardi's work BCCI, an illustrated map of the links between global finance and terrorism.
On October 28 at 2:00pm is a cineconcert The Mark of Zorro (Fred Niblo, 1920) with Hesperus accompanying the silent film. Douglas Fairbanks stars as Zorro.
National Museum of Women in the Arts
On October 7 at 1:00pm is Girls Rock! (Arne Johnson and Shane King, 2008), about a Rock n Roll camp where girls aged 8-18 form bands, write songs and perform in front of an audience. Staff from Girls Rock! DC will answer questions after the film.
Washington Jewish Community Center
On October 14 at 4:00pm is The Invisible Men (Yariv Mozer, 2012), about gay Palestinians, persecuted in their own land, are forced to hide out illegally in Tel Aviv. The director will be present for post-film discussion.
On October 16 at 7:00pm is Kafka's Last Story (Sagi Bornstein, 2011), a documentary about the fate of Kafka's writings and papers which he requested be burned after his death. Followed by a theatrical reading of excerpts from "Metamorphosis."
Goethe Institute
As part of the "Our City Film Festival" on October 15 at 6:30pm is Chocolate City (Ellie Walton and Sam Wild, 2007) about a housing project in SE, preceded by a short film Community Harvest (Brandon and Lance Kramer, 2011).
On October 22 at 6:30pm is Latest from the Da-Da-R (Jorg Foth, 1990), a series of cabaret pieces satirizing East German life in the year after the wall came down.
On October 1 at 6:30pm is a film TBA and a lecture by guest speaker Nimet Seker.
French Embassy
On October 9 at 7:00pm is Disintegration (Philippe Faucon, 2011) about children of North African immigrants who are unable to find jobs and turn to terrorism.
The Japan Information and Culture Center
Several films will celebrate the 20th anniversary of Japan-US space exploration. On October 18 at 6:30pm is Welcome Home Hayabusa (Katsuhide Motoki, 2012), on October 24 at 6:00pm is Hayabusa, the Long Return Home (Tomoyuki Takimoto, 2012) and on October 29 at 6:00pm is Hayabusa (Yukihiko Tsutsumi, 2011).
The National Theatre
Films starring Judy Garland will be shown during October and November. On October 15 at 6:30pm is The Wizard of Oz (1939); on October 22 at 6:30pm is For Me and My Gal (Busby Berkley, 1942); and on October 29 at 6:30pm is The Harvey Girls (1946).
Arlington Arts and Artisphere
On October 19 at 8:00pm is Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel, 1956) and on October 27 at 8:00pm is Ghostbusters (Ivan Reitman, 1984).
National Archives
On October 5 at noon is "Learning with the Lights Off: Educational Film in the United States," a lecture-film program with clips from educational films. On October 13 at noon is Missiles of October (1974), a TV docudrama about the Cuban Missile Crisis which occurred 50 years ago this month. On October 18 at noon is another Cuban Missile Crisis program "From the Vaults: The Cuban Missile Crisis," a selection of films from the Archives' collection. On October 19 at 7:00pm is "Preserving Grain, Presenting Pixels: Film Preservation and Restoration in the Digital Age," a panel discussion about the "digital dilemma."
The Avalon
This month's Greek film, Homeland (Syllas Tzoumerkasm 2010), is on October 3 at 8:00pm. The "Czech Lions" film for October is Katka (Helena Trestikova, 2009) on October 10 at 8:00pm. The French Cinematheque film is Sister (Ursula Meier, 2012) on October 17 at 8:00pm, winner of the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. The October film for "Reel Israel" is TBA.
Italian Cultural Institute
On October 23 at 7:00pm is Ten Winters (Valerio Mieli, 2009), a romantic drama.
The Hill Center at the Old Naval Hospital
In commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the first publication of Grimm’s Fairy Tales in 1812, the Goethe-Institut, in cooperation with Hill Center, presents ten new family-friendly fairy tale film adaptations originally produced for German public television. On October 7 at 2:00pm is "The Bremen Town Musicians." On October 14 at 2:00pm is "Sleeping Beauty. On October 21 at 2:00pm is "Mother Hulda." On October 28 at 2:00pm is "The Frog King." More in November and December.
Reel Affirmations XTra
On October 19 at 7:00pm and 9:00pm is Elliot Loves at the Washington Jewish Community Center. Reel Affirmations Xtra is a once-a-month screening; series passes are available.
Busboys and Poets
On October 2 at 6:00pm is Woody Guthrie: Hard Travelin in honor of Woody Guthrie's centennial, shown at the 5th and K location.
Library of Congress
A four-part series of Czech documentary films "Docs in Salute" which began in September, continues in October. It focuses on interesting personalities who have been touched by Jewish themes. On October 10 at noon is The Immortal Balladeer of Prague (2007), a documentary about the Czech-American journalist Thomas Hasler's search for his father Karel Hasler, a legend of Czech music, theater and cinema. The film is followed by a discussion with Thomas Jasler and co-director Josef Lustig. On October 17 at noon is Four Pairs of Shoes (1997), a portrait of Jan Weiner and followed by discussion with the film's director Pavel Stingl.
There are two films for Hispanic Month. On October 4 at noon is Wind Journeys (Ciro Guerra, 2009) from Colombia and on October 9 at noon is A Better Life.
FILM FESTIVALS
