The Lunch Date

I absolutely love this film. It really points out stereotypes that we all hold. I spent considerable time trying to locate a copy of this outstanding film. I finally found it on a DVD collection entitled Cinema 16: American Short Films. It has been well worth the search and the cost. I use it in my classroom to prompt discussions about stereotypes. I have my students watch it first from the point of view of the main character, the woman who has missed her train. I have them record their thoughts and perceptions from her point of view. I stop the film as she leaves the diner to catch her train. This is when I have my students share their thoughts. I then have them finish watching the story. Are they ever surprised! After this, I have them watch it from the perspective of the man eating the salad. After sharing their thoughts from his point of view, we discuss stereotypes. My students really enjoy this outstanding short story. The message contained in this short film is incredible.

Adam Davidson's Academy Award-winning short is about a rich woman who misses a train and then has an awkward experience in an eatery. "The Lunch Date" isn't anything profound yet manages to be thought-provoking. It forces you to ask what you would do in this situation. Don't expect the short to result in a life-changing experience. As far as I can tell, it's about making you confront your privilege and prejudices.

Worth seeing.

I watched "The Lunch Date" recently. I think it is good contents. The film is a monochrome film. I can find out resistance of discrimination against black people from one scene in which a white woman and a black man have one salad bowl together happily. Actually, at the start of the film, she bumps into a black man and then scatters her baggage. He helps to pick it up but she refuse that because she just cannot stand black people. Besides I can find out the kindness of black people. For these reasons, I think the contents is good socially. However, I feel something lacking in the ending. I suggest that she should meet the black man again and say "thank you and see you again". Then, I think it looks like a lunch date.

This 10 minute short is nearly perfect film-making. It should be mandatory viewing in film classes everywhere.

"The Lunch Date" tells a complete and complex story, makes you feel keenly for the two central characters, has complications, twists, reversals and a wonderful resolution. It never strays from context and reality and is utterly accessible.

And it's all done with virtually no dialog.

I would love to be able to own and look at this film from time to time when I'm trying to convince myself -- against all available evidence -- that really GOOD movies can be made small and simply.

I hope that "The Lunch Date" will be made available in either DVD or video cassette very soon.

Larry Santoro Larry@LarrySantoro.com

An old white lady, who has a lot of bags, harries to take a train in a station. But she bumps into a man, and she drops her bags to miss the train. Then she have lunch there. She buys her lunch and sits a seat. She realizes that there are no fork and stands up to take it. When she returns the seat, there is a black man. He has lunch, and she claims this is her lunch. But he continues to eat, and she also has it. The man buys two cups of tea. She drinks it a little and leaves there to take a train. Later she comes back there to forget a part of her bags.

After watching this short film, we realize that we have prejudices about a race. We tend to think color people are inferior to white people or low social ladder. Also the lady looks unhappy in this film, because she is driven by time. But she laughs in the end of this film. This is useful to stress the climax of it.