Mar 01, 2023
It's hard being the age you are isn't it? You have to worry about all the horrible things that come with being in the time and place you are and you're always jealous of another age. It's always so much easier being another age than what you actually are...but hey, it's better than being dead. And you know what? Maybe, just maybe, sometimes it's AWESOME being the age you are! For the month of March, we"ll be playing coming-of-age films all with different periods in a person's life. Join us at the Main branch of Ottawa Public Library in our auditorium at 5:30PM on every Tuesday of March.
Here's a selection of coming-of-age films:
First up is The Florida Project (2017) by Sean Baker. Moonee is a six-year old girl spending her days looking for adventure and causing mischief with her friends. She lives in a budget motel room with her rebellious and oftentimes immature/irresponsible mother Hailey. The motel they live in is on a stretch of highway next to Disney World. Failing to secure stable employment, Hailey, and many others living at the budget motel, are part of what is sometimes called the "hidden homeless". Hailey is forced to find ways to make ends meet for her and her daughter. Despite these seemingly harsh conditions, Moonee is like any other child, trying to find fun and joy in every moment. She gets along well with her mother and loves to play pranks on the patient and kind motel manager, Bobby. This film is a delightful exploraiton on what it means to be a child, even if the world around you is perhaps a lot more dangerous than you realize.
The second film will be Eighth Grade (2018) by Bo Burnham . The anxiety-filled time of eighth grade is horrible for many. Thirteen year-old Kayla is certainly having a difficult time navigating the harsh waters of her final week at middle-school. She strives to be socially accepted by her peers and hopes that high school will be much better than her disastrous year in eighth grade. To help cope with her anxiety she creates motivational videos that she posts as a series on her Youtube page, most of which get no views. Like many of her peers, she spends a good chunk of her time on social media, where most of the glitz, glamour, horror, humour, fear and anxiety live in their lives. Her father Mark, a single parent, tries his best to connect with her and make her appreciate the more real aspects of life. This is a remarkably true to life representation of growing up in middle school and a very effective way of conveying what it's like growing up in the digital age.
Our third film will be the 2018 film Rafiki by Wanuri Kahiu. Kena and Ziki are from two completely different walks of life. Kena is constantly hard at work helping out at her father's convenience store all day long and wants to go on to nursing school. Ziki on the other hand spends most of her time hanging out with friends all day and coming up iwth new dance routines. Kena's father is also running for office and it turns out that his main rival is Ziki's father. Despite their differing backgrounds and imposed political allegiances, both the girls start seeing each other more often and develop a relationship. Successfully pulling this off is not easy, not only because of their family but, at the time, Kenyan society in general is not receptive to homosexual relationships. They both must decide what is right for them and if they choose the side of social pressure or their emotions.This colorful film captures a challenging time in a person's life when they are forced to decide what their future as a soon to be adult will be and the trials of love in teenage years.
The final film is The Worst Person in the World (2021) by Joachim Trier. Being in your late 20s and having survived the teenage years doesn't mean you have everything figured out. And should you? Maybe you don't know what you want in life and are constantly trying to find yourself. Such is the case for Julie, who at the start of this film is a medical student but then transfers to psychology and then to photography. She ends up in a relationship with Aksel, a comic book artist who is 15 years older than her. At this point in her life, she decides to start dabbling in writing. At a wedding party, that she happens to crash, she meets Elvind and they instantly form a strong bond. Though both of them are in relationships and don't engage in any sexual activity, there's a clear connection. On top of her indecisiveness with her relationship with Aksel and the prospect of one with Elvind, Julie has a strained relationship with her family. Part romance, comedy and drama, this is an excellent exploration of young adulthood. This film could be considered what some are describing as the "delayed coming of age" genre.
The schedule is as follows:
- March 7th - The Florida Project
- March 14th - Eighth Grade
- March 21st - Rafiki
- March 28th - The Worst Person in the World
All screenings will begin at 5:30PM
Note: The films are intended for a mature audience. The films contain violence, nudity, strong language and drug use. The films will be screened in their original language with English subtitles where applicable.