Rockhurst University Presents Fall Film Series

Rockhurst University will present a three-part film series on consecutive Thursdays in September. Each film expresses “Reflection and Discernment” – one of Rockhurst’s six core values.

The biannual film series is a Rockhurst tradition that has included foreign language films, films commemorating the end of World War I, films based on historical periods, films dealing with philosophical issues, and films focusing on women’s studies.

The series begins Sept. 6 with The Way (2010). The film, directed by Emilio Estevez and starring Martin Sheen, tells the story of a father traveling overseas to recover the body of his estranged son who died while taking part in a Catholic pilgrimage from France to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. The father then decides to take the pilgrimage himself.

The second film, To Be and To Have (2002), will be shown on Sept. 13. This French film was directed by Nicolas Philibert and portrays a one-room school in rural France where students ages 4-11 are educated by a single dedicated teacher.

The series concludes Sept. 20 with the film Los Herederos (2008). This acclaimed documentary, directed by Eugenio Polgovsky, follows rural children in Mexico as they abandon school and work alongside their parents and siblings for subsistence wages. The film uses little dialog and no narration to record the characters’ daily lives without embellishment or over-dramatization.

Faculty from the Department of Classical and Modern Languages will introduce the films and conduct post-film discussions.

All films will be shown in Mabee Theater, located in Sedgwick Hall on the Rockhurst University campus, 54th Street and Troost Avenue. Tickets are $7 for the series or $3 for each film, and can be purchased at the door. Rockhurst faculty, staff and students are admitted free of charge. 

For more information, contact Cynthia Cartwright, director of the University’s Center for Arts and Letters, at 816-501-4607 or cynthia.cartwright@rockhurst.edu.