A screening of the documentary film ‘Join or Die’ will explore the lost culture of joining community groups and organizations, with stills from the film shown here, and is set for Thursday, May 23 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Easton branch of the Talbot County Free Library. The one-hour screening will be followed by small group discussions about the film’s theme of civic engagement and its role in strengthening communities. Light refreshments will be served, with no reservations needed. More about the film is at www.putnamdoc.com.
A screening of the documentary film ‘Join or Die’ will spark a community conversation about the need for more people of all ages to adopt the practice of being a ‘joiner’ in our local civic organizations, clubs, and volunteer corps.\
The one-hour film screening is set for Thursday, May 23 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Easton branch of the Talbot County Free Library and will be followed by small group discussions about the film’s theme of civic engagement and its role in strengthening communities. Light refreshments will be served, with no reservations needed.
The free event is made possible through the partner support of the Talbot County Free Library, Chesapeake Film Festival, Needles Eye Academy, Tidewater Rotary, Dock Street Foundation, and the Talbot Family Network.
“We aim to inspire action by sharing the groundbreaking civic findings from this film and highlighting local groups embodying these ideals,” said Nancy Andrew, MSW, executive director of Talbot Family Network. “Our goal is to motivate participants to consider how these findings are impacting life in Talbot County.”
“Becoming a ‘joiner’—as it’s been coined—has many benefits for those participating,” said Andrew. “Our joining together impacts our mental, physical and societal health.
“And that has a bigger, compounding effect,” she says, “on the way we support and care for one another through formal and informal networks which in turn builds resilience and strength for our communities.”
Directed by Rebecca and Pete Davis, ‘Join or Die’ examines how the fate of America, and our small towns like those on Maryland’s Eastern Shore depend on people coming together to be actively involved in civic organizations and clubs. The film premiered in 2023 at the SXSW Film & TV Festival in Austin, Texas, and is an official selection for numerous local, national, and international film festivals.
“As the unraveling of our social fabric has accelerated in the COVID era, the public is searching for fundamental explanations of our civic decline,” they said in their Directors’ Statement. “The film helps provide answers to questions like ‘Why can’t we see eye-to-eye with our neighbors,’”
The directors say Harvard professor and Bowling Alone author Robert Putnam has made great advancements in clarifying our understanding of the roots of our civic unraveling and is a master at translating social science research into engaging stories.
“With ‘Join or Die’, we aim to introduce Putnam’s research on the importance of community to democracy and the decline in American community engagement over the past decades to millions more Americans,” said the directors. “And especially to young Americans who were not alive to experience Bowling Alone going viral decades ago.”
More about the film is at www.putnamdoc.com.
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