WSCC Humankind Series

Overcoming loneliness: Togetherness, connection, Community

Humankind is WSCC’s arts and culture lecture series. The series consists of lectures, presentations, workshops, art exhibitions, film series, and much more.

This film series is part of the 8th year of West Shore Community College’s Humankind Series , focused on the theme, “Overcoming Loneliness: Togetherness, Connection, Community.” This theme explores ways we can address what the US Surgeon General has diagnosed as an epidemic of loneliness in our society today. Accordingly, the films will each speak to the problem of loneliness and ways to overcome it from different perspectives.

September 9th @ 7pm

connecting through cinema: Project Unlonely Films

A collection of powerful short films that bring diverse perspectives on loneliness.

More info to come!

September 16th @ 7pm

Lost in Translation

R
2003 ‧ Comedy/Romance ‧ 1h 41m

A lonely, aging movie star named Bob Harris (Bill Murray) and a conflicted newlywed, Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson), meet in Tokyo. Bob is there to film a Japanese whiskey commercial; Charlotte is accompanying her celebrity-photographer husband. Strangers in a foreign land, the two find escape, distraction and understanding amidst the bright Tokyo lights after a chance meeting in the quiet lull of the hotel bar. They form a bond that is as unlikely as it is heartfelt and meaningful.

October 16th @ 10am

The Phantom of the Opera (1925)

Not Rated
1925 ‧ Horror/Romance ‧ 1h 32m

The Phantom of the Opera is a 1925 American silent horror film adaptation of Gaston Leroux’s novel of the same name directed by Rupert Julian and starring Lon Chaney in the title role of the deformed Phantom who haunts the Paris Opera House, causing murder and mayhem in an attempt to make the woman he loves a star.

October 16th @ 7pm

The Phantom of the Opera (2004)

PG-13
2004 ‧ Musical/Romance ‧ 2h 23m

From his hideout beneath a 19th century Paris opera house, the brooding Phantom (Gerard Butler) schemes to get closer to vocalist Christine Daae (Emmy Rossum). The Phantom, wearing a mask to hide a congenital disfigurement, strong-arms management into giving the budding starlet key roles, but Christine instead falls for arts benefactor Raoul (Patrick Wilson). Terrified at the notion of her absence, the Phantom enacts a plan to keep Christine by his side, while Raoul tries to foil the scheme.

November 13th @ 10am & 7pm

The Lonely Guy

R
1984 ‧ Comedy/Romance ‧ 1h 30m

Larry Hubbard (Steve Martin), who pens greeting cards for a living, is lonely after his longtime girlfriend’s infidelity leads to the end of their relationship. When not commiserating with fellow loner Warren (Charles Grodin), Larry spends his time pursuing Iris (Judith Ivey), but the relationship seems doomed. Larry decides to channel his feelings into writing a book, which becomes a bestselling guide to the lonely life. Suddenly he’s famous — but all he really wants is to be with Iris.

December 13th @ 7pm

The Holdovers

R
2023 ‧ Comedy/Drama ‧ 2h 13m

A curmudgeonly instructor at a New England prep school remains on campus during Christmas break to babysit a handful of students with nowhere to go. He soon forms an unlikely bond with a brainy but damaged troublemaker, and with the school’s head cook, a woman who just lost a son in the Vietnam War.

January 13th @ 7pm

A Man Called Ove

PG-13
2015 ‧ Comedy/Romance ‧ 1h 56m

Ove (Rolf Lassgård) is the quintessential angry old man next door. An isolated retiree with strict principles and a short fuse, who spends his days enforcing block association rules that only he cares about, and visiting his wife’s grave, Ove has given up on life. After a boisterous young family moves in next door and accidentally flattens Ove’s mailbox, an unlikely friendship forms.

January 14th @ 7pm

A Man Called Otto

PG-13
2022 ‧ Comedy/Drama ‧ 2h 6m

When a lively young family moves in next door, grumpy widower Otto Anderson meets his match in a quick-witted, pregnant woman named Marisol, leading to an unlikely friendship that turns his world upside down.

February 10th @ 7pm

Lars and the Real Girl

PG-13
2007 ‧ Comedy/Romance ‧ 1h 46m

Extremely shy Lars (Ryan Gosling) finds it impossible to make friends or socialize. His brother (Paul Schneider) and sister-in-law (Emily Mortimer) worry about him, so when he announces that he has a girlfriend he met on the Internet, they are overjoyed. But Lars’ new lady is a life-size plastic woman. On the advice of a doctor (Patricia Clarkson), his family and the rest of the community go along with his delusion.

March 12th @ 10am & 7pm

Good Will Hunting

R
1997 ‧ Romance/Drama ‧ 2h 6m

Will Hunting (Matt Damon) has a genius-level IQ but chooses to work as a janitor at MIT. When he solves a difficult graduate-level math problem, his talents are discovered by Professor Gerald Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgard), who decides to help the misguided youth reach his potential. When Will is arrested for attacking a police officer, Professor Lambeau makes a deal to get leniency for him if he will get treatment from therapist Sean Maguire (Robin Williams).

April 11th @ 7pm

Spirited Away

Not Yet Confirmed

PG
2001 ‧ Fantasy/Adventure ‧ 2h 15m

In this animated feature by noted Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki, 10-year-old Chihiro (Rumi Hiiragi) and her parents (Takashi Naitô, Yasuko Sawaguchi) stumble upon a seemingly abandoned amusement park. After her mother and father are turned into giant pigs, Chihiro meets the mysterious Haku (Miyu Irino), who explains that the park is a resort for supernatural beings who need a break from their time spent in the earthly realm, and that she must work there to free herself and her parents.