Omaha is a supporting character in a new documentary exploring political and familial divides. The documentary, "My Omaha," opens Dec. 12 at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln's Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center.
The director of "My Omaha," Nick Beaulieu, will be joined by Leo Louis II, a community activist, for an question and answer session with the audience following the 1:30 p.m. Dec. 21 screening of the film.
Also opening Dec. 12 is "Peter Hujar's Day," and continuing through Dec. 18 is "Sentimental Value."
Set against the backdrop of Omaha’s deep divides and burgeoning racial justice movement, "My Omaha" tells the story of Beaulieu’s personal journey to document the activism of his hometown and reconcile with his terminally ill father Randy, a staunch pro-Trump conservative. Guided by the wisdom of community activist Leo Louis II, Beaulieu navigates the complexities of family conflict, political and racial discord, and the difficult search for common ground.
"It is a very brave and sensitive film about the love between father and son," said Laurie Richards, program manager for the Ross.
"My Omaha" is not rated and shows through Dec. 21.
The photographer Peter Hujar, whose images exist in an important lineage and dialogue with the work of groundbreaking artists such as Robert Mapplethorpe and David Wojnarowicz, forms the center of the latest movie by fearless independent American filmmaker Ira Sachs ("Passages").
Based on rediscovered transcripts from an unused 1974 interview by nonfiction writer Linda Rosenkrantz (played by Rebecca Hall), in which she asked Hujar (Ben Whishaw) to narrate the events of the previous day in minute detail, Sachs’s film is a mesmerizing time warp, an illustration of the life of the creative mind, the quotidian and the imaginative at once, fully and lovingly inhabited by its two brilliant actors. With this engrossing and wholly unexpected film, Sachs shuttles us back to a specific moment in New York's cultural history and a still-influential art scene that lives on in words as much as images.
"Peter Hujar's Day" is not rated and plays through Dec. 21.
For more information on films, including showtimes and ticket availability, visit the Ross' website.
