Virginia Film Festival

As an unusually bitter Arctic blast makes its way to downtown Cincinnati, a group of homeless library patrons find themselves at odds with library officials over how to handle the extreme weather event. Led by Jackson (Michael K. Williams), the patrons decide to turn the building into a shelter for the night by staging a sit in, and librarians Stuart (Emilio Estevez) and Myra (Jena Malone) are thrown into the middle of the action.  What begins as an act of civil disobedience quickly becomes a standoff with police while the media look to sensationalize the truth. This uplifting story explores issues of homelessness and mental illness in America and sets the drama inside one of the last bastions of democracy-in-action: the public library.

Discussion with writer, producer, director, and star Emilio Estevez, Jefferson-Madison Regional Library director David Plunkett, Cyndi Richardson from On Our Own, and Herb Dickerson from The Haven. The discussion will moderated by The Washington Post chief film critic Ann Hornaday. Ann Hornaday will also participate in a book signing in The Paramount Theater’s lobby after the screening. Her book, Talking Pictures: How to Watch Movies, will be available for purchase on site before the film.

The special event is presented by Virginia Film Festival and Virginia Festival of the Book, and supported by Jefferson-Madison Regional Library, The Paramount Theater, and UVA Office of the Provost and Vice Provost for the Arts. 

UPDATE: Advance tickets for our screening of The Public are no longer available. Unclaimed tickets may become available at the door on the night of the screening.

Here are the details:

• We will begin to sell unclaimed tickets to patrons waiting in a standby line at 10 minutes before the screening begins, or 6:50 PM on Friday, March 22.
• Please know that we do not have control over when the standby line will begin to form and therefore cannot advise patrons on an arrival time to join or form the line.
• Saving of places in the standby line is not permitted.
• A max of four tickets per person will be sold.