Two new films – “Dying to Know: Ram Dass & Timothy Leary” and “Complete Unknown” starring Rachel Weisz – open at the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center starting Sept. 16
“Dying to Know: Ram Dass & Timothy Leary” is an intimate portrait celebrating two very complex, controversial characters in an epic friendship that shaped a generation. The program, which is being presented with the support of the Nebraska Arts Council and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment, runs through Sept. 22.
In the early 1960s, Harvard professors Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert began probing the edges of consciousness through experiments with psychedelics. Leary became the LSD guru, challenging convention, questioning authority and as a result spawned a global counterculture movement and landing in prison after President Nixon called him “the most dangerous man in America.” Alpert journeyed to the East and became Ram Dass, a spiritual teacher for a generation. Now in his eighties, he continues teaching service through compassion. With interviews spanning 50 years, “Dying to Know” invites viewers into the future, encouraging them to ponder questions about life, drugs and death.
In this provocative film narrated by Robert Redford, viewers get an intimate conversation between Leary and Ram Dass a few months before Leary’s 1995 death, a genuine exploration and an emotional, respectful goodbye between lifelong companions. Ram Dass, who suffered a stroke not long after Leary’s death, also shares his perspective on death and dying.
In “Complete Unknown,” Weisz is a woman of many guises in Joshua Marston’s intriguing study of mutable identity. This film, presented with the support of the Nebraska Arts Council and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment, is a shape-shifting tale of the perils and pleasures of self-reinvention. It begins at a dinner party, when Tom’s (Michael Shannon’s) co-worker arrives with an intriguing date named Alice (Weisz).
Tom is convinced he knows her, but she refuses to acknowledge their history. When Alice makes a hasty exit, he sets off after her. What follows is an all-night odyssey shared by two people, one needing to change his life, the other questioning how to stop changing.
Showtimes are available at The Ross website or by calling the film information line at 402-472-5353.
