Foreign Film Lovers Club Online: “Hannah Arendt”

Wednesday, January 20, 2021
7:00 pm

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Our next “Foreign Film Lovers Club” will be at 7pm on Wednesday, January 20, 2021, and in commemoration of Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27, our featured movie will be “Hannah Arendt,” a 2012 German film about the brilliant and controversial author of “The Origins of Totalitarianism.” In this movie, the title character, a German-Jewish woman portrayed with ferocity as well as great humor and warmth by Barbara Sukowa, travels to Jerusalem in 1961 to report on the trial of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann. In her subsequent five-part article for ‘The New Yorker,’ Arendt coins the phrase “the banality of evil” as part of her attempt to explain how ordinary citizens could commit atrocities such as the Holocaust, claiming they were only following orders. While this report is met by praise in many quarters, it also spurs great division and disappointment, and even death threats, and Arendt must face her many critics, including many former supporters and friends.

What is the “Foreign Film Lovers Club”? One of the Library’s most popular programs has been our “Foreign Film Series,” featuring a variety of entertaining and thought-provoking films each year from Europe, Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Due to the pandemic, we can’t come together in person to watch these films, so we’ve taken the series online as the now twice-monthly “Foreign Film Lovers Club.”

Before each meetup, we’ll let you know what film we’ve chosen next, which you will watch on your own ahead of our meetup. These films will be available to watch free online to Morristown & Morris Township cardholders via our subscription to Kanopy, a movie streaming platform (https://mmt.kanopy.com/). The club is also open to residents of other towns, though you will need to find other ways to see the movie, either via DVD and/or other streaming platforms. (We recommend using www.justwatch.com to find out about streaming options available to you, and/or searching your library’s catalog to find out if the DVD is available to borrow.) When we meet up, we’ll talk about what we liked or didn’t like about that night’s film, and have fun comparing notes. And by the way, we all get busy, so if you’re not able to watch or finish a film ahead of a meeting, don’t worry – join in anyway!

How do you attend online? We meet via Zoom, which you can use through your computer or preferred device by downloading the app from their website or from your preferred devices’ App store. (You also have the option to participate via phone call, if you prefer.) Please email louis.munoz@mmt.mainlib.org and include your full name and town of residence to be placed on our Contacts list and to receive the access details you’ll need ahead of each meeting. If you have any difficulty downloading the app, please email our Reference Desk for help at info@jfpl.org or call 973-538-2592 during business hours.

Looking forward to seeing you online!