Meetings

Regular Monthly

Meetings at Himmel Park Library near Speedway and Tucson Boulevard
The Tucson Atheists have one monthly meeting at Himmel Park Library
(1035 N Treat Ave, one block south of Speedway and one block east of Tucson Boulevard)
beginning at 6:30 pm every third (3rd) Monday of the month with a few exceptions.

NEXT MEETING: Monday, June 16, 2008, 6:30 PM.

Our next movie is on Monday, June 23, 2008, 7:00 PM.
We will be watching The Magdalene Sisters.
At the Sahara Hotel/Apartments Small Theatre, 919 N Stone Avenue.

No food or drink in the theatre.

Movie review by Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune Movie Critic, published August 13, 2003 and awarded 4 stars of 4 stars:

A fierce, brilliant film that breaks (and then mends) your heart, Peter Mullan's "The Magdalene Sisters" is based on the life stories of three young women sent in the mid-'60s to the convent laundries of the Magdalene Asylums, run by a sisterhood named, ironically enough, for the ex-whore who became a follower of Christ.

These homes for "wayward girls" were operated by the more conservative wing of the Irish Catholic Church before they were closed after public outcry in 1996. They were essentially private prisons in which the girls, sent there by their parents for "crimes" ranging from unwed pregnancy to simple flirting or "being too pretty," were exploited as unpaid labor on seven-day workweeks in the laundries. Once there, some young women were forgotten by their families and were essentially imprisoned for life. In addition, some girls said they were humiliated and beaten by the nuns and sexually abused by the priests. Joni Mitchell's song "The Magdalene Laundries" tells the story of these convent/prisons; so did the BBC documentary "Sex in a Cold Climate," the film that inspired Mullan.

It's a horrible, infuriating nightmare of a story, and it's not surprising that the church has condemned Mullan and his movie - or that "Magdalene Sisters" won the Grand Prize, The Golden Lion of the Venice Film Festival, in Italy. This is a movie that holds you rapt with both anger and admiration.

SEE YOU AT THE MOVIES!

Revised June 5, 2008

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