This triple bill begins with Jennifer Reeder's short film Seven Songs About Thunder, introduced by the director, and continues with innovative and highly praised features that explore connections between music and romance (Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench) and varied searches for spiritual fulfillment (All the Ships at Sea).

A Columbus native (and past Wexner Center Residency Award recipient), Reeder returned to her hometown to film Seven Songs About Thunder, a dark comedy about a young woman who is forced to confront her fantastically failing life when she finds the body of a teenage girl in the woods. Seven Songs won the Best Narrative Film award at the Ann Arbor Film Festival. (Jennifer Reeder, 2010, 20 mins., video)

The magical Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench combines a gritty near-documentary style with thrilling, full-fledged musical numbers—imagine a classic MGM musical in a neorealist mode. Guy, a young Boston jazz musician drifts from love affair to love affair with his trumpet the only constant in his life. He makes a promising connection with an introvert named Madeline but is soon drawn towards a more outgoing love interest. The two separated lovers slowly wind their way back into each others lives through a series of romances punctuated by song. Guy is played by trumpeter Jason Palmer, recently named one of 25 "Trumpeters for the Future" by DownBeat magazine. (Palmer performed at the Wexner Center with saxophonist Greg Osby in 2005.) (Damien Chazelle, 2009, 82 mins., video)

Deserving comparisons to the thoughtful relationship dramas of European filmmakers such as Ingmar Bergman and Eric Rohmer, All the Ships at Sea centers around Evelyn, a Catholic theology professor, and her younger sister, Virginia, who has recently resurfaced after disappearing into a religious cult in central Ohio. Film critic-turned-filmmaker Dan Sallitt's engrossing film is a nuanced exploration of doubt, faith, family, and the search for enlightenment. Filmmaker Arnaud Desplechin (Kings and Queens), who knows a thing or two about portraying complicated family relationships, praised the film and its director by saying, "the dialogue is absolutely wonderful, brilliant, discreet, moving. This man, Dan Sallitt, has really found his own voice, which is so rare." (Dan Sallitt, 2003, 63 mins., video)

All the Ships at Sea begins at 8:50 pm.