WAVERLY TWP. — The Waverly Community House announced “The Messengers,” a film by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lucian Perkins, is among those being shown at this year’s NEPA Film Festival.

An independent photographer and filmmaker based in Washington, D.C., Perkins’ focus on documenting human-interest stories encompasses daily life and social issues in the United States, as well as conflicts and crisis overseas.

“The Messengers,” Perkins’ first full-length documentary, takes viewers on an intimate three-year journey through the maze of emotions and hard truths that exist inside the walls of Joseph’s House, a hospice for homeless men and women with end-stage AIDS and terminal cancer.

There, viewers meet two young volunteers: Cameron, a 20-year-old well-intentioned, but naive college dropout, and 23-year-old Brittney, who has a firm belief about her mission in life. What both of them soon learn is that death holds many revelations that alter their assumptions about the world and redefine their place in it.

The dying become teachers, opening the volunteers’ eyes to the important connections death can bring to life.

As staff photographer at The Washington Post for more than 20 years, Perkins covered major international events, such as the fall of the Soviet Union and aftermath, the wars and refugee crisis in the former Yugoslavia, Chechnya, Iraq and Afghanistan and major events at home. He received his first Pulitzer Prize for collaboration with Post reporter Leon Dash on their four-year study of the effects of poverty on three generations of a Washington, D.C. family through the eyes of the matriarch. His second was for coverage of the Kosovo conflict.

“The Messengers,” which premiered at FilmFestDC in April 2017, will be screened at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 21 at Iron Horse Movie Bistro in Scranton as part of the Second Annual NEPA Film Festival.

Perkins will be in attendance at the Film Festival, which takes place Friday, Oct. 20 through Sunday, Oct. 22, with a preview party and opening night film, “At the Drive In,” on Friday at the Waverly Community House and movie screenings on Saturday at Iron Horse Movie Bistro and Sunday at Wyoming Seminary’s Kirby Center for the Creative Arts.

Tickets to the festival can be purchased at nepafilmfestival.com and at the Waverly Community House. An All Access Weekend Pass is $65 and includes all access to the opening night premier party and opening night feature film as well as all films at both locations on Saturday and Sunday. A Saturday and Sunday Pass is available for $15 and a Single Day Pass costs $10.

Perkins
http://www.theabingtonjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/web1_ABJ-Perkins.jpg.optimal.jpgPerkins Submitted photo

For Abington Journal

Information provided by the Waverly Community House.