THE PUBLIC (in collaboration with MV Library Association)
This special FREE EVENT is made possible by the generous support of the Martha’s Vineyard Library Association, the Friends of all the Island Libraries, and the Martha’s Vineyard Film Society. Admission is free, so please consider bringing a nonperishable donation for the Island Food Pantry.
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 begins 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 our 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.