Special Screening of All Illusions Must Be Broken
Honoring Sonoma’s
Sam Keen
Sebastiani Theater
Saturday, Feb 15, 2024
11am PST
RSVP BELOW
RSVP
Sebastiani Theater
476 1st St E, Sonoma, CA 95476
More About Sam and the Film
In 1973, journalist Sam Keen traveled to Vancouver B.C. to interview cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker. This now legendary conversation was, even in its time, understood to be extraordinary. In the words of a contempary journalist in 1974, it was a “true literary event.”
By DAVID POLING
Every once in a while a true literary event comes to pass. It happens when personalities, filled with truth, have just the right moment to express and exchange conviction about life and death and eternity. Often such encounters are unplanned and more frequently they occur in our world but pass unnoticed for lack of recording and revelation. We are surrounded by many brilliant philosophers and theologians — but often unaware of their vision and understanding.
Not so with Ernest Becker and Sam Keen, editor of Psychology Today. For the April edition of that journal faithfully records the remarkable and profound insights of Ernest Becker, scholar, professor, searcher for the union of science and religion, and now confronting the final stage of terminal cancer.
Dr. Becker rocketed to fame as the popular lecturer at Berkeley in the field of sociology and anthropology. In the mid-1960s he spoke to overflow audiences in San Francisco and later moved to Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. Again and again his lectures and books (eight) moved to the center of psychology and religion. His pursuit of knowledge was autobiographical, for he was seeking God.
In the closing period of Becker's young life — (49) — Sam Keen decided to interview him in his hospital room. For a solid afternoon they discussed, probed, and questioned the terms of human existence... it was a "day of loving combat" in the words of Karl Jaspers.
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
ABOUT THE FILM
All Illusions Must Be Broken is a cinematic contemporization of the last interview made with American cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker whose book The Denial of Death won the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction in 1974. Becker’s multi-disciplinary 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.
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.
CREDITS
Who Is Ernest Becker?
Fifty years after its first publication, Dr. Ernest Becker’s The Denial of Death continues to influence thinkers, artists, provocateurs, religious leaders and political ones. Here is just a small sampling of his wide-ranging audience of appreciative fans.
The first five minutes…
of All Illusions Must Be Broken features Sam Keen introducing viewers to Becker’s ideas and setting the stage for the rest of the film to follow. Sam Keen’s powerful and poignant interview serves as the emotional heart of the film which we hope will bring Becker’s ideas to an entirely new generation.