PELHAM, NY — On Tuesday, August 15th at 7:30 p.m. The Picture House Regional Film Center (TPH) will host an advance screening of Marjorie Prime (Lois Smith, Jon Hamm, Geena Davis, Tim Robbins) followed by a discussion with lead actress Lois Smith led by TPH’s critic-in-residence Marshall Fine. Marjorie Prime premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival where it won the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film prize.
Marjorie Prime—based on Jordan Harrison’s Pulitzer-nominated play—follows eighty-six year old Marjorie as she spends her final, ailing days with a computerized version of her deceased husband. With the intent to recount their life together, Marjorie relies on the information from her and her kin to develop a more complex understanding of his history. As their interactions deepen, the family begins to develop diverging recounts of their lives, drawn into the chance to reconstruct the often painful past. The film poses the questions of what would we remember, and what would we forget given the chance, and explores memory and identity, love and loss.
After the screening, TPH’s critic-in-residence Marshall Fine will moderate a discussion and Q&A with the celebrated, lead actress in the film, Lois Smith. Smith has played supporting roles in films including East of Eden, Five Easy Pieces, Resurrection, Fatal Attraction, Fried Green Tomatoes, Dead Man Walking, Tumbleweeds, Twister, Please Give and 2016’s The Comedian and The Nice Guys. In television, she has performed in series that include The Americans, True Blood, and Desperate Housewives. Smith is also known for her extensive work in the theatre, receiving two Tony Award nominations for originating the role of Ma Joad in The Grapes of Wrath in 1990 and for the role of Halie in a revival of Buried Child in 1996. She also starred in an acclaimed Off-Broadway revival of The Trip to Bountiful in 2005 for which she received an Obie Award for Best Actress, an Outer Critics Circle Award, a Lucille Lortel Award, and a Drama Desk Award. She was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 2007 for her outstanding contributions to the theatre. In 2013 she was given a Lifetime Achievement Obie Award for excellence in an Off-Broadway performance. In her career she has also taught, directed, and written for the stage.
Tickets to the special screening and discussion are $15/general admission, $12/students, seniors, and members and are available at www.thepicturehouse.org or at the box office, 175 Wolfs Lane, Pelham, NY 10803.