Please join us for our Jesuits in Film cinema series. Co-sponsored by the Cleveland Institutes of Art’s Cinematheque, this series explores ways that Jesuits have been portrayed on screen and in popular culture. More dates and times to be announced.
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Silence (Chinmoku)
Series Opens at the Cinematheque
Cleveland Institute of Art
February 11 – 6:30 PM
Limited number of free passes available; all are invited.
In 1614, missionaries were expelled from the country and Japanese Christians were presented with a choice: either apostasize or be brutally killed. Under cover of nightfall, two Portuguese Jesuits seek to infiltrate those Christian sects driven underground, and re-establish the foothold of the Church on the isolated island-nation. Soon, however, the Jesuits find themselves drawn into the mire of persecution and gradually learn the truth behind the ominous disappearance of another Catholic missionary decades earlier. In the face of inhumanity, the two Jesuit priests are forced to examine their personal and religious beliefs. Adapted from the renowned novel by Shusaku Endo, regarded as the Graham Greene of Japan, Silence explores an enduringly ambiguous relationship between culture, power, and Catholicism.
Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque is located at
11141 East Boulevard in University Circle
Admission to the film will be $8
Cinematheque members and CIA & JCU students, faculty, and staff (with I.D.) $6.
A limited number of free passes are available through the Cardinal Suenens Center.
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The Exorcist
February 15 at 6:30 PM John Carroll Univeristy Alumni/ae Lounge - Rodman Hall
A movie actress taking up temporary residence in Washington, D.C., has her troubles. The script for the movie she is filming seems inadequate. Her ex, who is also the father of her adolescent daughter, Regan, neglects to call the girl on her birthday. And the attic has rats. Meanwhile, Father Karras, a Jesuit priest and a psychiatrist at Georgetown University, is questioning his faith and dealing with a sick mother who needs medical care he hasn't the money to provide. Another Jesuit priest, the old and ailing Father Merrin, has just returned from Iraq with forebodings of evil. These three persons meet when the sweet and cheerful Regan is possessed by a mysterious power. But her sickness is beyond the reach of medicine. What Regan needs is an exorcist. Winner of two Academy Awards, this film is directed by William Friedkin.
Free Admission |
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Black Robe
February 22 at 6:30 PM at John Carroll Univeristy Alumni/ae Lounge - Rodman Hall
In the 17th century a Jesuit priest and his young companion are escorted through the wilderness of Quebec by Algonquin Indians to re-establish contact with a Jesuit mission in the Huron nation in the dead of winter. The hostile wilderness and native customs challenge Father Laforgue, the young, idealistic Jesuit whose ambitious mission is to save the souls of the “savages” of New France. The Jesuit experiences a spiritual journey while his young companion falls in love with the Algonquin chief's beautiful daughter. As they travel through the Canadian North, dread and death follow them up river. Will they survive meeting the hostile Iroquois nation? Defying conventional stereotypes of European settlers and American Indians, Black Robe is a gripping tale of faith and conviction.
Free Admission |
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On the Waterfront
March 15 at 6:30 PM at John Carroll University Alumni/ae Lounge - Rodman Hall
The Waterfront Crime Commission is about to hold public hearings on union crime and underworld infiltration. As workers are turned against each other, Terry Mallo -- played by Marlon Brando --inadvertently participates in the murder of fellow longshoreman Joey Doyle. The dead man’s sister introduces him to Father Barry, a Jesuit priest, who encourages him to provide information for the courts that will smash the dock racketeers. This film is based on the life and work of John Corridan, S.J., a Jesuit priest who fought against corruption and organized crime in New York City.
Click here to read an article by Fordham Professor James Fisher about John Corridan, S.J., on whom the movie is based.
Click here to listen to a pod cast from NPR/WHYY's Fresh Air as they interview On the Waterfront screen writer Budd Schulberg, director Elia Kazan, and actress Eva Marie Saint, who starred in the picture opposite Marlon Brando and won an Oscar for her portrayal of his convent-reared girlfriend.
Click here to read a New York Times article about the real-life Waterfront Crimes Commission by By Ralph Blumenthal, August 12, 2009.
Free Admission
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Camila
March 22 at 6:30 PM at John Carroll Unviersity Alumni/ae Lounge - Rodman Hall
A wealthy young socialite and young Jesuit priest fall in love and run away together to a small Argentinean village where they conceal their true identities. When they are discovered, a terrible tragedy ensues. Authorities have suppressed the telling of this story since the first attempt to put it on the screen in 1912. This version, directed by Maria Luisa Bember, earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Film.
Free Admission |
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Amen
April 12 at 6:30 PM at John Carroll University Alumni/ae Lounge - Rodman Hall
Kurt Gerstein, a brilliant German scientist, is recruited into the SS to help with a "special project" involving fumigation of "vermin infested" areas behind the front lines. Gerstein experiments on Zyklon-B, a deadly chemical gas which Gerstein believes will be put to use killing rats, lice, and other disease carrying creatures. However, when Gerstein realizes that this invention will be used to kill not animals but people, he begins a crusade to inform the Vatican about what is happening. In the movie, an idealistic Jesuit priest, Riccardo Fontana, is a composite of priests who opposed the Holocaust. The Jesuit Fontana joins Gerstein in helping to inform the Pope and break the silence. Based on a true story, this movie is directed by Costa-Gavras.
Free Admission |
This film series is coordinated by Kevin Henderson, program assistant, the Cardinal Suenens Center. KHenderson11@jcu.edu
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