'Mass' Is a Study of Forgiveness at the Virtual KCET Cinema Series on Oct. 7
Q&A immediately following screening with writer/director Fran Kranz as well as the cast; Reed Birney, Ann Dowd, Jason Isaacs and Martha Plimpton.
An American drama written and directed by Fran Kranz, and starring Reed Birney, Ann Dowd, Jason Isaacs, and Martha Plimpton. Years after their lives were torn apart, the parents of a victim of a school shooting meet face-to-face with the parents of the perpetrator.
Kranz shared, "…in many ways, the film is about that, about how we live with grief, and how we can heal or potentially move forward, but how it never really leaves you, you just live with it differently. I've never written a screenplay before. The only way I really knew how to go about doing it was as an actor. I would try to put myself in each of these characters' shoes, and work through this conversation as I believed one would have to from that perspective.
The four perspectives being as a father of a shooter, the mother of a shooter, father of the victim, and the mother of the victim. I never sat down beforehand and said or decided, this is how they all are going to behave and this is going to be their journey. It happened organically in trying to write it out. For example, I read about families sharing photos, and so I started a scene trying to figure out what that might be. I read about a certain loophole in gun legislation, and then I'd improvise a scene about how the characters might speak about that. The way they each individually process grief came about naturally."
Immediately following the screening, Deadline's chief film critic Pete Hammond, who can also be seen on KCET’s Must See Movies, will moderate a Q&A with writer/director Fran Kranz as well as the cast; Reed Birney, Ann Dowd, Jason Isaacs and Martha Plimpton.
The film screens on Thursday, Oct. 7 at 7 p.m. PDT. Only $10 per viewing link. Limited space available.