PORT TOWNSEND — Got your man card? A film to screen Thursday, Feb. 11 at Fort Worden’s Wheeler Theatre explores how boys and young men are defined by modern society.
“The Mask You Live In,” directed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, follows boys and young men as they struggle to stay true to themselves while negotiating America’s narrow definition of masculinity.
This film offers suggestions about how society can raise healthier generations of boys and young men.
For more information about the film, visit therepresentationproject.org.
The screening is sponsored by the Jefferson County Community Foundation Fund for Women and Girls and the Port Townsend Film Festival.
Event organizers encourage middle school and high school students to attend the free event.
The theater, located at 25 Eisenhower Way, opens to the public at 6 p.m.
The 60 minute film begins at 6:30 p.m. with an hour long panel discussion following the film.
The panel consists of Zhaleh Almaee, a theatre artist-activist, cultural organizer and mother dedicated to raising conscious young men; David Meggyesy, a former NFL linebacker who played for seven years with the St. Louis Cardinals; and Mark Saran, a seasoned psychotherapist and professional photographer based in Port Townsend and Seattle.
As co-director of the Mandala Center for Change, Almaee is driven by a deep belief in people’s inherent capacity to see the humanity in each other, and to change, organizers say.
Informed by a framework of Spiritual Activism, Almaee most enjoys teaching Transformational Theatre to deepen personal awareness and fuel social action.
Meggyesy is the author of best-selling football autobiography, Out of Their League and the former western regional director of the NFL Players Association.
Meggyesy’s focus will be on how society uses sports in the “making of men,” and how sports and particularly football are used to teach and articulate the values of society which are deemed important, organizers say.
Saran engages intensely with adolescents and adults, and relishes the creative process that informs both his art and his work with people, organizers say.
For more information, contact Port Townsend Film Festival at 360-379-1333. or visit facebook.com/events/1657992981155045/.
