It's a Wonderful Life, Friday

It's a Wonderful Life
Benefit Showing for Gilead Community Services
Friday, December 18, 7PM
Goldsmith Family Cinema, Washington Terrace,
Wesleyan University Middletown CT

Because it's not always a wonderful life, Gilead Community Services has to constantly seek sources of revenue to help those in need. Gilead provides mental health services, and related services like housing, for hundreds of individuals in Middlesex County who work diligently to fit into a society which is not always welcoming to individuals who struggle with mental health issues.

Especially at this time of year, the staff at Gilead feel compelled to make sure that the basic needs of their clients are met.

Friday's showing of It's A Wonderful Life will help assure that those helped by Gilead will find the help they need.

So, when you buy a ticket to enjoy Frank Capra's classic, you will not only have the pleasure of seeing, on the big screen, a film which has become an icon of the holiday season, but the satisfaction of knowing that you've helped someone in your community who really needs your help.

It's A Wonderful Life is often shrugged off as a "Christmas movie," and while it is set during the Christmas season, it's only about Christmas in the way it portrays giving to those around you, as the only way a community can survive.

It's A Wonderful Life is a complex, beautiful film, at times giddy and silly, and at other times so dark that some of the worst impulses of human behavior are on display - greed, fear, want, betrayal, desperation, envy and duplicity. But it's this glimpse of life's darkest shadows which make the triumph of the film so satisfying and joyous.

Marc Longenecker, of the Wesleyan University Film Studies program, and an expert in the films and career of Frank Capra, has agreed to introduce the film. Below you'll find a short interview with Longenecker which was originally broadcast on WESU-FM.

The Middletown Eye is co-sponsoring the showing, but we will receive no monetary benefit. We invite you to join us Friday evening to enjoy, perhaps enjoy again, one of America's best-loved films shown with an original film print in the state-of-the-art Goldsmith Family Cinema. We hope to fill every seat, and if you want to be sure you have one, call today, 860-343-5300, ext 0.