Kanopy Klub: Film Discussion

Discover new films and discuss them with new friends, all from the comfort of your living room.

Each month, we'll meet virtually to discuss a film that is available to stream on Kanopy, for free with your library card. Sign up, watch the film, and join us for a discussion. If you have never used it before, find out how to get started using Kanopy here.

This month's film selection is The Last Laugh: On Holocaust Jokes and Comedic Taboo. 

Are we allowed to make jokes about the Holocaust? In this outrageously funny and thought-provoking film, filmmaker Ferne Pearlstein puts the question about comedy's ultimate taboo to legends including Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Sarah Silverman, Gilbert Gottfried, Harry Shearer, Jeff Ross, Judy Gold, Susie Essman, Larry Charles, and many other critical thinkers, as well as Holocaust survivors themselves.

Through these interviews and clips from our favorite standup comedy, TV shows, and movies, THE LAST LAUGH offers fresh insights into the Holocaust, our own psyches, and what else--9/11, AIDS, racism--is or isn't off-limits in a society that prizes freedom of speech. In the process, THE LAST LAUGH also disproves the idea that there is nothing left to say about the Holocaust, and opens a fresh avenue for approaching this epochal tragedy.

Official Selection at the Tribeca Film Festival and Hot Docs International Film Festival.

To join this online program, you will need a computer, tablet or phone with a camera and microphone. The link to join the event will be emailed to registrants one hour before the program begins.*

*A phone number will be included to allow you to use a phone as speaker and microphone, if necessary.