The Last Supper (2005, in English, 66 mins.), a film documenting some of the rituals, histories and cultural parameters for the global custom of last meals offered to prisoners before execution, will be presented on occasion of the Vera List Center’s year-long cycle on “Considering Forgiveness.” The two Swedish filmmakers, Mats Bigert and Lars Bergstrom, will be joined in a discussion of the creation of the film and its political implications by Brian Price, the protagonist of the film and chef of 218 “last suppers” served in U.S. prisons, and Terri Gordon, assistant professor in comparative literature at The New School.
The conversation will touch on the difference between killing and letting die as elaborated on by French philosopher Michel Foucault. Foucault talks about the shift in power from the centralized monarch to decentralized modern society, a shift from the monarch’s right to kill (symbolized by the sword) to a system of bio-politics where the state instead has the ability to let live or die.
Participants
Mats Bigert, filmmaker and contributing editor, Cabinet magazine
Terri Gordon, Assistant Professor in Comparative Literature, with join appointment at The New School for General Studies and University Humanities
Brian Price, author (Meals to Die For, 2005) and co-host of Here Comes the Light, a Christian prison outreach radio program in Texas. Price is the principal protagonist in the film.
Organized by the Vera List Center for Art and Politics, in collaboration with Cabinet magazine.
This event is presented as a part of the Vera List Center’s program cycle on “Considering Forgiveness.”