MY LIFE AS A ZUCCHINI
After his mother’s death, Zucchini is befriended by a kind police officer, Raymond, who accompanies him to his new foster home filled with other orphans his age. There, with the help of his newfound friends, Zucchini eventually learns to trust and love as he searches for a new family of his own.<div><br></div><div><div>"Seeing the world through a child's eyes can be pretty eye-opening. Watching My Life as a Zucchini, the altogether marvelous and Oscar-nominated stop-action animated film by director Claude Barras, that world is one you will not soon forget." - Miriam Di Nunzio, Chicago Sun-Times</div><div><br></div><div>"My Life As A Zucchini, or Ma vie de Courgette is a film about loss, shared moments, and the value in being able to find everyday hope and optimism in the moments we spend with others who make us feel less alone. </div><div><br></div><div>On the surface, the movie seems simple--a young boy is sent to live in an orphanage, where he meets other children who have also lost their parents in a variety of ways, ranging from addiction and death to deportation and imprisonment--- but the balance between difficult life experiences and the tightrope walk of still holding the growing mind of a child keeps the film surprising. The filmmakers used child voice actors, giving them space to play-act the story together with their peers as they were recording, and I love that especially in the way we get to hear their dynamics in their performances. I am also learning stop motion animation and aspire to complete my own science fiction film, and the themes of found family are integral to the kind of story I hope to tell someday in this theater that feels like a second home.</div><div><br></div><div>As a former teen library specialist, I feel deeply fortunate for the years I got to spend around the group of youth I got to work with, both for the boundless creative energy they displayed and the honor of getting to see them drop protective facades to open up to each other authentically, learn new things, joke around, and connect. I am forever grateful for the teens who would share with me what they were creating and in turn ask about what I was making as well, because that earnestness in them challenged me daily to do the same. One of my teens is a young adult now and I sincerely feel if not for meeting her, I am not sure I would have had the courage to try to live my own dreams and be an animator. </div><div><br></div><div>I always wanted to share this one with my teens and discuss it in a film club, but unfortunately, that never came to be. I often use films as an emotional shorthand to connect with friends and family where words would fail me on their own in order to communicate concepts I find people have a hard time talking about, and this one is no exception. </div><div><br></div><div>A large part of my reasoning behind selecting this film was in the appreciation I feel for the friends I've made in Olympia. There's something akin to finally breathing in feeling that you're finally safe enough to tell your story by having the love of the kind of people around you who are willing to not only hold it, but try to understand it, and then get to experience the flickers of the children you used to be when you've finally found people who "get you."</div><div><br></div><div>I feel that all too often, we discount the unique perspective of a child in our day-to-day lives as adults, and I sincerely hope that the reminder that we all carry the child we were within motivates us to see and treat the people around us differently, because we don't always get to know where they've been and what they have survived before meeting us. I hope it also reminds us to find grace: both for ourselves for the ways that child still makes itself known in our own lives as well as in the lives of those we meet and have come to love." - Kit DeForge, Olympia Film Society Volunteer</div><div><br></div><div>SCREENING: THU 9/24 7PM (Introduced by Olympia Film Society Volunteer Kit DeForge) (subtitles); FRI 9/25 4PM (subtitles); SUN 9/27 4PM (subtitles)</div><div><br></div><div>Tickets are now available online and at the box office beginning 30 minutes before showtime.</div><div><br></div><div>This show has ADA area seating or specifically held seats available. Please call the box office at (360) 754-6670 x16 or email boxoffice@olympiafilmsociety.org if you have any questions. The wheelchair positions should not be selected by patrons who are not using wheelchairs or in need of ADA seating.</div></div>AnimationPT1H6M2026-09-24FRfrGaspard Schlatter
Sixtine Murat
Paulin Jaccoud
Claude Barras / 2016 / French with English Subtitles
Céline Sciamma
Max Karli
Pauline Gygax
Michel Merkt
Kateryna Merkt
Armelle Glorennec
Marc Bonny
MY LIFE AS A ZUCCHINI"MY LIFE AS A ZUCCHINI"Showtimes
September 24, 7:00 pm
September 25, 4:00 pm
September 27, 4:00 pm
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