Preview Screening & Live Event
The Departure with Lana Wilson in person

Part of New Adventures in Nonfiction
Saturday, October 7, 2017, 6:30 p.m.
Museum of the Moving Image - Bartos Screening Room

With Lana Wilson in person

Dir. Lana Wilson. 2017. 87 mins. In Japanese with English subtitles. The second documentary by award-winning director Lana Wilson (After Tiller) is a poetic, singularly intimate portrait of Japanese Buddhist priest Ittetsu Nemoto, a former wild child who has dedicated himself to helping suicidal people find reasons to live. Wilson finds a man whose work has taken a toll on his own family and health, as he refuses to draw lines between his professional and personal lives, answering phone calls in the middle of the night and filling his days with visits to the troubled and lonely. The Departure captures Nemoto at a crossroads, when his growing self-destructive tendencies lead him to confront the same question his patients ask him: What makes life worth living? With the patience and psychological insight of a Henry James novel, The Departure manages to be both astonishingly candid and uniquely philosophical.

Please note: Due to travel issues with the visiting filmmaker, the screening has been rescheduled from Sunday, October 8. 

Tickets: $15 (free for members at the Film Lover level and MoMI Kids Premium levels and above). Order tickets online. (Members may contact [email protected] with questions regarding online reservations.) 

Ticketholders for The Departure may receive a complimentary ticket to Mama Colonel, which screens at 4:30 p.m. on the same day. Tickets will be given out first come, first served at the Front Desk.

Ticket purchase includes same-day admission to the Museum (see gallery hours). View the Museum’s ticketing policy here. For more information on membership and to join online, visit our membership page