All Illusions must be Broken
Screening & discussion with
filmmaker Jef Sewell
Kuenzel Room
The Michigan Union
Thursday, October 9 at 6:30 PM
DIRECTED & PRODUCED BY
PRODUCED BY
Owsley Brown
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
Terrence Malick
Robert Redford
Nick Offerman
Nelda Buckman
WHO IS ERNEST BECKER?
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Jose A. Bufill, “Death” at Fifty: Ernest Becker and the Immortality Project. October 4, 2023
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Alexander Nazaryan. A hopeful reminder: You're going to die. The New York Times. December 28, 2023
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Arthur Brooks. You're going to die. That's a good thing. The Atlantic, January 9, 2025
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Irving Louis Horowitz. Ernest Becker: An Appreciation of a Life That Began September 27, 1924 and Ended March 6, 1974. The American Sociologist, 1975
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William Breitbart. Existential guilt and the Fear of Death. Palliative and Supportive Care, October 2017
ABOUT THE FILM
All Illusions Must Be Broken is a cinematic reflection on the last interview made with American cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker whose book The Denial of Death won the Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction in 1974.
Becker’s multi-disciplinary exploration of human nature and his own personal testimony challenge us to move beyond our fears and see the beauty that surrounds our
fragile lives.
Using Becker’s brilliantly conceived framework, the film examines the unexpected consequences of disconnecting our children from nature and reality during their
formative years.
His ideas help to show how replacing our given natural environment with a virtual one only furthers our tendencies toward self-deception.
Part film essay, part verité study,
the narrative connects Becker’s profound insights, contemporary interviews on the re-patterning power of screens, and scenes from
a boyhood ages birth to 13
to demonstrate how our
relationship to nature
rapidly unraveling.