LCCC FILM SOCIETY

For more information on the Film Series or to be added to the mailing list call 800-995-5222 ext. 4140, or direct at 440-366-4140.

The Stocker Box Office is open Mondays through Fridays from 12:00 noon to 6:00 pm and one-and-one-half-hours before ticketed events, including films. You can reach the Box Office at (440) 366-4040 or (800) 995-5222 ext. 4040.

Film Admission
Patrons, except LCCC students/faculty/staff with valid ID, must purchase an annual membership in the LCCC Film Society for $3.00/each, which is good for the entire season (September through the end of the 2009 Winter/Spring film series season). The admission price for each film is $5.00/ticket with your membership card.

Friday, November 6, 2009 - 7:30pm
DEPARTURES  

2008 (Not Rated) 130 min. Japan/subtitles
Director: Yojiro Takita
Cast: Masahiro Motoki, Tsutomu Yamazaki, Ryoko Hirosue, Kazuko Yoshiyuki

Winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, DEPARTURES is a delightful journey into the heartland of Japan as well an astonishingly beautiful look at a sacred part of Japan's cultural heritage. The film follows Daigo Kobayashi, a devoted cellist in an orchestra that has just been dissolved and who is suddenly left without a job. Daigo decides to move back to his old hometown with his wife to look for work and start over. He answers a classified ad entitled “Departures” thinking it is an advertisement for a travel agency only to discover that the job is actually for a “Nokanshi” or “encoffineer,” a funeral professional who prepares deceased bodies for burial and entry into the next life. While his wife and others despise the job, Daigo takes a certain pride in his work and begins to perfect the art of “Nokanshi,” acting as a gentle gatekeeper between life and death, between the departed and the family of the departed. The film follows his profound and sometimes comical journey as he uncovers the wonder, joy and meaning of life and living. Though dealing with death and other dark themes, the overall approach is upbeat and the tone eccentric, based on the director's philosophy that “most humans are comical by nature.”  

“The music is lush and sentimental in a subdued way, the cinematography is perfectly framed and evocative, and the movie is uncommonly absorbing.” - Roger Ebert, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

“This is truly masterful and glorious filmmaking.” - Edward Douglas, COMING SOON.NET

Friday, November 13, 2009 - 7:30pm
THE SECRET OF THE GRAIN   

2007 (Not Rated) 151 min. Tunisia, France/subtitles
Director: Abdellatif Kechiche
Cast: Habib Boufares, Bouraouia Marzouk, Hatika Karaoui, Hafsia Herzi 

At the port of Sete, Mr. Slimani, a tired 60-year-old, drags himself towards a shipyard job which has become more and more difficult to cope with as the years go by. He is a divorced father who forces himself to stay close to his family despite the scissions and tensions which are easily sparked off and which financial difficulties make even more intense. He is going through a delicate period in his life, and recently everything seems to make him feel useless; a failure. He wants to escape from it all and set up his own restaurant. However, it appears to be an unreachable dream given his meager, irregular salary which is not anywhere near enough to supply what he needs to realize his ambition. THE SECRET OF THE GRAIN takes one man, his children, their spouses and babies, his ex-wife, his girlfriend, her daughter, and his friends and turns them into a masterpiece about the strange power of food to heal, unite, exasperate. An entire family chronicle, along with four decades of French social and economic history, is recapitulated as a lavish, hectic dinner, complete with music and belly dancing.  It will leave you stunned and sated, having savored an intimate and sumptuous epic of elation and defeat, jealousy and tenderness, life and death, grain and fish.

“Rather than observing this family, we feel we are part of it, and that draws in as nothing else can.” - Kenneth Turan, L.A. TIMES

“THE SECRET OF THE GRAIN never slows, always engages, may continue too long, but ends too soon. It is made of life itself.” - Roger Ebert, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

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GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE STOCKER ARTS CENTER FILM SOCIETY

The Stocker Arts Center Film Society is truly an alternative cinema, as most of these films have not played in Lorain County, and are not readily available on video.  Audiences have the opportunity to sample the gourmet flavor of prize-winning foreign films, and the exciting energy and originality of contemporary independent American and international cinema.

The LCCC Film Society's series focuses on human relationships, moral and social issues, cultural and religious diversity, and universal human emotions and aspirations, including humor, disappointment and tragedy.

The first Film Series film was premiered on campus more than 40 years ago by Professor Emeritus Robert Dudash (who is still the LCCC Film Society Director!), making it the longest running non-academic activity at LCCC.