Last Train Home screens January 28, 2011

Last Train Home
Friday, January 28, 2011
Frank Center at NFA, Norwich
Free of charge
Doors: 7:00 pm
Movie: 7:30 pm

Every spring, China’s cities are plunged into chaos, as all at once, a tidal wave of humanity attempts to return home by train. It is the Chinese New Year. The wave is made up of millions of migrant factory workers. The homes they seek are the rural villages and families they left behind to seek work in the booming coastal cities. It is an epic spectacle that tells us much about China, a country discarding traditional ways as it hurtles towards modernity and global economic dominance.

Last Train Home, an emotionally engaging and visually beautiful debut film from Chinese-Canadian director Lixin Fan, draws us into the fractured lives of a single migrant family caught up in this desperate annual migration. Sixteen years ago, the Zhangs abandoned their young children to find work in the city, consoled by the hope that their wages would lift their children into a better life. But in a bitter irony, the Zhangs’ hopes for the future are undone by their very absence. Qin, the child they left behind, has grown into adolescence crippled by a sense of abandonment. In an act of teenage rebellion, she drops out of school. She too will become a migrant worker. The decision is a heartbreaking blow for the parents.

In classic cinema verite style, Last Train Home follows the Zhangs’ attempts to change their daughter’s course and repair their ruptured family. Intimate and candid, the film paints a human portrait of the dramatic changes sweeping China. We identify with the Zhangs as they navigate through the stark and difficult choices of a society caught between old ways and new realities. Can they get ahead and still undo some of the damage that has been done to their family?

Joyeux Noel: 12/11/2010 at NCC

Joyeux Noel (Merry Christmas)
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Donald L. Oat Theater, Norwich
Suggested donation $7
Doors: 7:00 pm
Movie: 7:30 pm

In 1914, World War I, the bloodiest war ever at that time in human history, was well under way. However on Christmas Eve, numerous sections of the Western Front called an informal, and unauthorized, truce where the various front-line soldiers of the conflict peacefully met each other in No Man’s Land to share a precious pause in the carnage with a fleeting brotherhood. This film dramatizes one such section as the French, Scottish and German sides partake in the unique event, even though they are aware that their superiors will not tolerate its occurrence.

The film was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 78th Academy Awards. The film marks one of Ian Richardson’s last appearances before his death.

A portion of the proceeds donated at this film screening will be donated to the Wounded Warrior Project.

Directed by Pedro Almodóvar. With Penélope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas. After her death, a mother returns to her home town in order to fix the situations she couldn’t resolve during her life.

Where: The Ensemble Room in the Sidney Frank Center on the campus of the Norwich Free Academy (NFA).
When: Friday, February 26th at 7:00pm
Cost: $5 suggested donation per family