Popcorn Sermon #1: On the Waterfront

Sunday, May 20, 1:30-4:30pm, Members $10, Nonmembers $15
Each session includes the film screening, commentary by JoAnn DiVerdi, and audience discussion. Tickets to each session are sold independently, but those who are able to attend all four will more fully appreciate the series.

In this four-program series, film columnist JoAnn DiVerdi shines a light on four classic American films to reveal how symbols of Christian faith and stories of Christ have been recreated in ways that we may not recognize at first, but that have much to do with why they resonate with us to this very day. Surprisingly, it’s not any religious figure in the films, but the fighters, gangsters, gamblers, crooked politicians, and unscrupulous lawyers, along with the innocents caught within their web, who have the most to reveal.

On the Waterfront (Director Elia Kazan, American, 1954, 108 mins, in English)

Legendary acting by Marlon Brando? Gritty, crime drama? Maybe even a tender love story? But did you ever think of On the Waterfront as the story of Christ on the docks? A morality play in black-and-white all about redemption? Join classic film columnist JoAnn DiVerdi as she reveals the religious symbolism in this iconic non-religious film. An audience discussion will follow.

POPCORN SERMON #2: Sunday, June 3, 1:30-4:30pm Marty

POPCORN SERMON #3: Sunday, July 15, 1:30-4:30pm Force of Evil

POPCORN SERMON #4: Sunday, August 19, 1:30-4:30pm Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

JoAnn DiVerdi is a classic film columnist with a special devotion to those shot in black-and-white. Her columns have appeared in The Catholic Free Press and on the websites of 50 Plus CT and Mass Bay Film Project. She has a certificate of study in “50 Years of Hitchcock” from Ball State University and is conducting a film program in April at The Beaman Memorial Library in West Boylston on 1940s filmmaker Preston Sturges. She welcomes all to visit her website, and to follow her on Twitter @JoAnnDiVerdi.