Wednesday 11th March 2020
10.00 am, 2.30 pm,
5.00 pm and 7.15 pm
Directed by Emilio
Estevez
Drama USA
120 mins PG
In “The Public” an unusually bitter Arctic blast has made its way to downtown Cincinnati and the front doors of the public library, where the action of the film takes place. At odds with library officials over how to handle the extreme weather event, some homeless patrons turn the building into a shelter for the night by staging an “Occupy” sit in. What began as an act of civil disobedience becomes a stand-off with police and a rush-to-judgment media constantly speculating about what’s really happening. This David versus Goliath story tackles some of the nation’s most challenging issues, homelessness and mental illness and sets the drama inside one of the last bastions of democracy-in-action: your public library.
Director/Writer Emilio Estevez, who plays the kindly librarian, has created an entertaining, empathetic and funny film, which was very popular at the Travelling Film Festival
“Written, directed by and starring Emilio Estevez, The Public is a pleasantly old-fashioned crowd-pleaser, which argues that libraries are the last great bastion of modern democracy, since they provide free access to knowledge, community and shelter.” – Vicki Roach, Daily Telegraph
“Writer-director-star Emilio Estevez turns a library occupied by homeless citizens as ground zero for our under-fire democracy. Bravo!”. Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
“Making a feature that pleads the cause of the homeless is a laudable achievement, so it’s all the more unfortunate that Estevez is unable to eliminate some of the obvious flaws in an otherwise compelling, and timely, drama”. – David Stratton, The Australian