Screening: The Son (2022, Florian Zeller)
After the film, there was a panel discussion about the nature and manifestations of adolescent depression and suicidality, and the cross-cultural dynamics that many young people encounter in accessing mental health resources and treatment on the East End of Long Island. The featured panelists were: Dr. Daniel Knoepflmacher, Vice Chair of Education in Psychiatry and Training Director for the General Psychiatry Residency Program at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medicine, who holds an MFA in Film Production and had a prior career in the motion picture industry; Anastasia Gochnour, Licensed Clinical Social Worker, and Program Director at OLA of Eastern Long Island’s YouthConnect; and Angelica Ortiz, Master of Social Work, and Program Coordinator at OLA of Eastern Long Island’s YouthConnect. Sag Harbor Cinema Board Member Dr. Diana Diamond moderated the discussion and the Q&A that followed.
About the Film
A cautionary tale that follows a family as it struggles to reunite after falling apart. The Son centers on Peter (Hugh Jackman), whose hectic life with his infant and new partner Beth (Vanessa Kirby) is upended when his ex-wife Kate (Laura Dern) appears at his door to discuss their son Nicholas (Zen McGrath), who is now a teenager. The young man has been missing school for months and is deeply troubled. Peter strives to take care of Nicholas as he would have wanted his own father (Anthony Hopkins) to have taken care of him while juggling his and Beth’s new son, and at work an offer of a dream position in Washington. However, by reaching for the past to correct its mistakes, he loses sight of how to hold onto Nicholas in the present.