The NEA Big Read: Wichita will next read Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by cartoonist Roz Chast, beginning March 2023. Each film, like Roz Chast’s graphic novel, explores caregiving and the universal challenges experienced as one cares for someone with a chronic illness, injury, medical trauma, or nearing end of life. Presented by the Wichita Public Library, Tallgrass Film Association, and Wichita State University I Public Health Sciences.
THURSDAYS starting March 16, 5:30 pm
Advanced Learning Library, 711 W. 2nd
Film and Popcorn sponsors include Central Plains Area Agency on Aging, Regent Rehabilitation and Healthcare, Alzheimer’s Association – Central & Western Kansas Chapter, KUSM-Wichita Family and Community Medicine, Good Shepherd Hospice, Larksfield Place, Wichita Medical Research and Education Foundation, Proud of Wichita, Inc., The LGBT Chamber of Commerce, Independent Living Resource Center, and Wichita Urban Professionals
THEN Join us for FILM CHAT
After each show, 8:00 pm
The Monarch, 570 W. Douglas
Find a PDF version of the Big Read Mini Film Fest Poster attached with hyperlinks to tickets built in, OR here is the direct link to get free tickets through Tallgrass. Everyone is encouraged to sign up for the films, so we know head count. It is not required if someone decides to drop-in on a film last minute.
Mar 16, 2023 – The Notebook: An epic love story centered around an older man who reads aloud to a woman with Alzheimer’s. From a faded notebook, the old man’s words bring to life the story about a couple who is separated by World War II, and is then passionately reunited, seven years later, after they have taken different paths.
March 23, 2023 – Robot & Frank – Curmudgeonly old Frank lives by himself. His routine involves daily visits to his local library, where he has a twinkle in his eye for the librarian. His grown children are concerned about their father’s well-being and buy him a caretaker robot. Initially resistant to the idea, Frank soon appreciates the benefits of robotic support – like nutritious meals and a clean house – and eventually begins to treat his robot like a true companion. With his robot’s assistance, Frank’s passion for his old, unlawful profession is reignited, for better or worse.
March 30, 2023 – The Farewell – A headstrong Chinese-American woman returns to China when her beloved grandmother is given a terminal diagnosis. Billi struggles with her family’s decision to keep grandma in the dark about her own illness as they all stage an impromptu wedding to see grandma one last time.
April 6, 2023 – Supernova – Sam and Tusker, partners of 20 years, are traveling across England in their old RV visiting friends, family and places from their past. Since Tusker was diagnosed with early-onset dementia two years ago, their time together is the most important thing they have. As the trip progresses, however, their ideas for the future clash, secrets come out, and their love for each other is tested as never before. Ultimately, they must confront the question of what it means to love one another in the face of Tusker’s illness.
April 13, 2023 – The Upside – Phillip is a wealthy quadriplegic who needs a caretaker to help him with his day-to-day routine in his New York penthouse. He decides to hire Dell, a struggling parolee who’s trying to reconnect with his ex and his young son. Despite coming from two different worlds, an unlikely friendship starts to blossom.
Get FREE tickets at https://tallgrassfilmcenter.eventive.org/schedule
- Scroll down to the film and date, then CLICK Order Tickets.
- Will ask for email and a password for time user. EASY!
- Once done, it will issue a free ticket and option for a text version.
- Paper ticket is not required at event.
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EVENT: The Big Read: Wichita 2023
NEA Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.
The NEA Big Read: Wichita will next read Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by cartoonist Roz Chast, beginning March 2023.
THEME: Can’t we talk about something more pleasant?
A finalist for the National Book Award and winner of the Kirkus Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Books for a Better Life Award, the memoir tells the story of Chast’s parents’ final years through cartoons, family photos, found documents, and narrative prose. “So many have faced (or will face) the situation that the author details, but no one could render it like she does” (Kirkus).
BOOK OUTLINE:
“Between their one-bad-thing-after-another lives and the Depression, World War II, and the Holocaust, in which they’d both lost family… who could blame them for not wanting to talk about death?” – Roz Chast in Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?
In her first memoir, New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast brings her signature wit to the topic of aging parents. Spanning the last several years of their lives and told through four-color cartoons, family photos, and documents, and a narrative as rife with laughs as it is with tears, Chast’s memoir is both comfort and comic relief for anyone experiencing the life-altering loss of elderly parents.
While the particulars are Chast-ian in their idiosyncrasies—an anxious father who had relied heavily on his wife for stability as he slipped into dementia and a former assistant principal mother whose overbearing personality had sidelined Roz for decades — the themes are universal: adult children accepting a parental role; aging and unstable parents leaving a family home for an institution; dealing with uncomfortable physical intimacies; managing logistics; and hiring strangers to provide the most personal care.
An amazing portrait of two lives at their end and an only child coping as best she can, Can’t We Talk about Something More Pleasant will show the full range of Roz Chast’s talent as cartoonist and storyteller. – (McMillan Palgrave)
