AN ENCOUNTER WITH SIMONE WEIL

Q&A with director Julia Haslett following the film screening

While wrestling with questions about her father’s suicide, her brother’s depression, and the unfathomable horrors of war and religious hatred, filmmaker Julia Haslett ran across a sentence written by the French philosopher Simone Weil: Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity. This seemed to be the beginning of an answer to a question constantly tugging at the mind and heart of the young filmmaker: What response does seeing human suffering demand of us? To try to understand what Weil meant, Haslett set out to learn more about one of the most remarkable – and yet little known – young women of the first half of the 20^th century, one who spent her short life grappling with the urgent moral and political questions of her time by direct experience of factories, warfare, hunger, and political activism, which she then turned into volumes of profound thought.

Original music by Daniel Thomas Davis
USA, 2012, digital, color and B&W, 85 min.
English/French with English subtitles

"Julia Haslett has made a profound and moving film on a woman who continues to speak to all of us. Few Americans know of Simone Weil, but this deeply affecting documentary will make you want to know more. AN ENCOUNTER WITH SIMONE WEIL challenges all of us not to look the other way when we see the suffering of others. Julia's personal journey through the film is both heartbreaking and inspiring." -- Michael Moore

Screening Info

Wednesday, April 4, 2012 at 7 PM
Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar (1120 S Lamar)
Tickets: $8 General Admission, $5 AFS Members & Students with Valid ID

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