With director Antonio Tibaldi in conversation with author Dan Callahan, author of The Art of American Screen Acting, 1960 to Today, with a book signing immediately afterwards

Dir. Antonio Tibaldi. 1991, 97 mins. 35mm. With Judy Davis, Matthew Ferguson, David McIlwraith. Young Simon Henderson lives at boarding school in Canada, away from his mother in England and his father who works in Hong Kong. When his parents visit for the holidays, Simon discovers that his mother has schizophrenia. In Antonio Tibaldi's unsettling, emotionally astute On My Own, Judy Davis plays a uniquely compelling woman whose mental suffering cannot entirely obscure her impulses to care for and guide her son, who in turn has to quickly adapt to a changing dynamic. This rarely screened film was chosen by author Dan Callahan to celebrate the publication of his newest book, The Art of American Screen Acting, 1960 to Today, which contains a chapter on Judy Davis.

"Davis does not believe, really, that people have consistent or plausible characters, and so her work is made up of bold little stylized fragments of behaving," Callahan writes. "Davis is on screen for maybe half an hour in On My Own. But in that half hour she is a very stirring figure of emotional upheaval and grace under mental pressure."

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