Yale University
Linsly-Chittenden Hall 101
Sponsored by the Poynter Fellowship in
Journalism, Public Humanities and Film Studies
October 2, 6:00pm
Upcoming Screenings:
Univeristy of North Carolina
Wilmington
University Film Center Cinema
October 18, 5:00pm
ALL ILLUSIONS MUST BE BROKEN
Produced & Directed by
Laura Dunn & Jef Sewell
Executive Producers
Terrence Malick, Robert Redford
Nick Offerman, Nelda Buckman
Producer
Owsley Brown
Co-Producer
Marie Becker
Editor
Laura Dunn
Cinematography/Design
Jef Sewell
Composer
Katy Jarzebowski
Sound
Pete Horner & Skywalker Sound
ALL ILLUSIONS MUST BE BROKEN is a cinematic contemporization of the work of American cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker whose book THE DENIAL OF DEATH won the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction in 1974. Becker’s psychoanalytic exploration of human nature and his own personal testimony challenge us to move beyond our fears and see the beauty that surrounds our fragile lives.
ABOUT THE FILM
Using Becker’s brilliantly conceived framework, the film examines unexpected consequences that stem from denaturing children’s formative years. Increasingly, cultural & virtual environments are replacing our actual, natural environment. In the process, as Becker’s ideas help to show, we only further our tendencies toward self-deception.
Part film essay, part verité study, the narrative interleaves Becker’s profound insights, contemporary interviews on the re-patterning power of screens, and scenes from a boyhood ages birth to 13.
ABOUT THE SERIES
The third feature documentary from filmmakers Laura Dunn & Jef Sewell and Executive Producers Terrence Malick and Robert Redford, ALL ILLUSIONS MUST BE BROKEN completes a trilogy that began with THE UNFORESEEN (2007) and continued with LOOK & SEE: A PORTRAIT OF WENDELL BERRY (2017).
All three films explore the eclipse of nature by culture.
“Children are asking us, ‘Who am I? ’
The kid wants to know
what he’s doing on this planet.
And we don’t know, so we lie to him,
and we tell him how he came to be here,
which is not really how he came to be,
since we don’t know.
And the one dangerous thing that we do with that
– however well-intentioned we are when we do it –
is we eclipse the dimension of mystery.
We make the kid think that there’s no mystery in the world.”
— Ernest Becker
