Trailer Watch: A Buddhist Priest Helps People Find the Will to Live in Lana Wilson’s “The Departure”
A Japanese punk-rocker-turned-Buddhist-priest provides much-needed hope to suicidal people seeking counsel in “The Departure.” A trailer has dropped for Lana Wilson’s new documentary and sees Reverend Ittetsu Nemoto taking calls from people who tell him that they “fail at everything” and “should just disappear” — Nemoto has made it his mission to convince them otherwise. But his calling is taking a toll on his own well-being.
“I take on so much of their suffering when I’m counseling,” Nemoto says in the spot. “I can never show them how draining it is.” He’s told, “You’re speaking to others when you’re weak yourself… you can’t have good results with that.”
Wilson told us that she wants audiences who see the film to “to think about the meaning and value of their own lives. What’s most important. What there is to be grateful for. What it is that we’re seeking out when we try to connect with other people. Where that impulse to ‘do good’ comes from. How we can both forget and remember our sense of self when we’re immersed in the experiences of others.”
In 2015 Wilson won an Emmy for co-directing “After Tiller,” a documentary about doctors who provide third-trimester abortions for women in the U.S.
“The Departure” made its world premiere at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival and opens in New York October 13 and in LA October 20. A national release will follow.
