MacArthur Genius Filmmaker Stanley Nelson 4/7

Meet award-winning filmmaker and MacArthur Genius Stanley Nelson who will answer your questions following a screening of his acclaimed film, The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, this Friday night, 7PM start time, Page Hall, UAlbany Downtown campus.

"Sober yet electrifying!" A. O. Scott, New York Times
"Essential history and a primer in making sense of how we live now."-- Washington Post
April 7 (Friday): THE BLACK PANTHERS: VANGUARD OF THE REVOLUTION

 Film screening with commentary by director Stanley Nelson — 7:00 p.m. [note early start time], Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue, Downtown Campus

 Directed by Stanley Nelson (United States, 2015, 115 minutes, color and b/w)

 This feature length documentary explores the remarkable history of the Black Panther Party, its formation and ultimate downfall, and its cultural and political significance to the broader American culture. Nikki Baughan of the Alliance of Women Film Journalists, called the film “Compelling and incisive,” and said, “The most shocking aspect…is how painfully relevant its message still is.” The film premiered at Sundance, aired on PBS, and received awards for Best Documentary from the Image Awards and the National Board of Review

Stanley Nelson is an Emmy Award-wining documentary filmmaker and recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship. He was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Obama in 2014. Nelson’s other films include FREEDOM RIDERS, JONESTOWN: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF PEOPLE’S TEMPLE, and THE MURDER OF EMMETT TILL, among others.
Note: Producer Marcia Smith, also originally scheduled to attend, will not appear at the event because of a scheduling conflict.
Sponsored in conjunction with UAlbany’s School of Criminal Justice’s Justice & Multiculturalism in the 21st Century: Crime, Justice, and Public Memory Film Series.

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Robert Stone on "The Writer" in 1996

Robert Stone, celebrated author of Dog Soldiers who died last week, was featured on a 1996 episode of "The Writer," a former collaboration between PBS station WMHT and the New York State Writers Institute:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1is4nXRD-M&feature=youtu.be

More about Stone's visit to the Writers Institute and UAlbany:
http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/stone.html

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Short Essay Contest, Deadline April 15th

You are invited to enter the first New York State “Poetry Unites” short essay contest.

Open to all New York State residents for the best short essay (no longer than 600 words) about your favorite poem

After a successful six-year run in Europe, the Poetry Unites contest, inspired by Robert Pinsky's Favorite Poem project, has come to New York State.

Marie Howe, the New York State Poet (appointed by Governor Cuomo under the sponsorship of the New York State Writers Institute), and Corinne Evens, a philanthropist, in co-ordination with the Academy of American Poets, the New York State Writers Institute, and the New York State Office of Cultural Education, are pleased to announce a contest for the best short essay about a favorite poem. The contest is open to all New York State residents.

Awards:

·         The four winners of the main prize will be featured in short film profiles, which will be placed on the Academy of American Poets website, New York State Library website, New York State Writers Institute website, and may be broadcast in the USA by Public Television .

·         All winners will be invited to NYC gala in October 2014. The invitation will cover travel expenses within New York State.

More information:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/poetry_unites14.html

Picture:  Walker Hancock's bust of Robert Frost.

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Carolyn Forche on PBS NewsHour Yesterday!

Carolyn Forche who visits us today appeared yesterday on the PBS NewHour, January 29, 2014:

Poet Carolyn Forché gathers 500 years of suffering in new anthology....

The poets featured in Carolyn Forché’s anthology “Poetry of Witness” have endured extreme conditions: warfare, censorship, forced exile. The Georgetown professor and poet herself calls the collection an “outcry of the soul.” Jeffrey Brown sat down with Forché to discuss this style of writing and its enduring power.

Website:  http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/poet-carolyn-forche-gathers-500-years-of-suffering-in-new-anthology/

She also reads two poems:  Major John McCrae's poem "In Flanders Field," and Emily Dickinson's poem "They Dropped Like Flakes."  Watch and listen here:  http://www.pbs.org/newshour/poetry/carolyn-forche-explores-writing-as-an-outcry-of-the-soul-in-poetry-of-witness/

More on Forche's visit to UAlbany here:  http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/forche_carolyn14.html

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Remembering Elmore Leonard, with Video

See a 2001 episode of "The Writer" featuring the late crime fiction genius Elmore Leonard (1925-2013), based on his visit to the New York State Writers Institute in September 2001, two days before the catastrophe of 9/11.

"The Writer" series was a coproduction of the NYS Writers Institute and PBS television station WMHT.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOPDVQNmOMs

Former Institute videographer Hugo Perez, director of "The Writer," introduces.

More on Leonard's visit to Albany: http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/leonardelmore.html

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Robert Pinsky on the PBS News Hour

A July 4, 2001 appearance by poet Robert Pinsky (who presents a free reading today 7/5 in Saratoga) on the PBS NewsHour was reshared yesterday on that program's website.

Pinsky read some astonishing lines from a poem by Walt Whitman ("By Blue Ontario's Shore") that emphasize the importance of self-criticism in any true expression of patriotism-- of recognizing our country's failings so that we may work to improve and perfect it.

Also featured is Pinsky's July 4, 2002 reading of poet John Hollander's poem about fireworks, "Sparklers."

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/blog/2013/07/from-the-newshour-archives-robert-pinsky-on-the-4th-of-july.html

For a full schedule of free readings at the New York State Summer Writers Institute in Skidmore:
http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/sumread.html

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Online Chat with the Central Park Five

 

The five wrongly convicted Harlem teenagers (now grown men) will chat online on the New York Times City Room blog, tomorrow April 17 at 6:30 PM.

Whether you missed or managed to attend our special advance screening of Central Park Five on April 5 at Page Hall with co-directors Sarah Burns and David McMahon, you may wish to pose your questions to "the five," as well as to David, Sarah and Sarah's father, Ken Burns.

City Room Blog link:  http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/.

You can still catch the film today-- its official national air date-- April 16 at 9PM, on PBS stations. WMHT will also air the film again today at 11PM, and on Wed. 4/17 at 2AM, Fri. 4/19 at 2AM, Sun. 4/21 at 3AM and Mon. 4/22 at 3AM.

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Homeland Film Tomorrow: "Visually Stunning"

Tomorrow, Friday 2/15 at Page Hall, 7:30PM, we will screen Homeland, winner of numerous prizes at documentary festivals around the world. The film follows the battles of Native American activists to save the natural beauty and resources of their reservations from corporate exploitation.

"Beautifully crafted... Roberta Grossman skillfully intersperses vastly varied archival clips with quietly impassioned testimonials by tribal leaders and stunning lensing showcasing both the natural wonders and the manmade degradation of the landscape... Homeland merits a wider audience than provided by scattershot PBS airings... At a time when 30 years of environmental protection laws are being rapidly dismantled, Homeland militantly proposes America's First Peoples as the vangaurd of resistence." -- Variety

"Visually stunning... [Homeland] is a perfect blend of visuals, words, musical background, and thought-provoking issues related not only to Native Americans but to the environmental crisis facing America. " -- School Library Journal

"The story of a U.S. tragedy -- multinational companies doing their deadly work in Native peoples' backyards -- and of the brave few who stand up to combat it." -- The Utne Reader

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"William Kennedy's Prohibition Story" on NY History Blog

NYH: What was it like working with William Kennedy?

DS: Kennedy himself will relate that researching the ‘true’ history of Jack Legs Diamond was a mammoth undertaking, and fraught with dead ends and bogus accounts of people who supposedly knew him. We interviewed Kennedy for 5 marathon hours in one day. For a man in his 80’s Kennedy was a complete gentleman, and was as sharp as a tack. It was a great experience. His encyclopedic knowledge and really his performance in the delivery made every edit difficult. I hated to have to leave anything on the cutting room floor.

Read more of the New York History Blog's interview with PBS documentary filmmaker Dan Swinton.

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A Devilish and Dutiful Daughter

John Matteson, who visits Thursday, contributes a review of the PBS film, Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women (2009) in the journal, Humanities.

Matteson received the Pulitzer for his dual biography, Eden’s Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father (2008), about the father-daughter relationship between Louisa May Alcott, author of Little Women, and Bronson Alcott.

Clips of the film aired at the Writers Institute in October 2010 with a discussion by Nancy Porter, the film's director, and Harriet Reisen, the author of the biography upon which the film is based.

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Where Spontaneity Is Almost Impossible

Adam Johnson, who visits 2/14, talked about his new novel of North Korea on the PBS NewsHour, Monday 1/30.

"It seemed, as a writer, that this was perhaps the most difficult place on Earth to be fully human, a place where spontaneity is almost impossible, where confessing your heart and your wants and desires run counter to the state and could get you in trouble, and because I found very few works from North Korean writers themselves that they weren't allowed to tell their own stories, that I thought this was something that literacy fiction could do, could fill in this void." More.

Picture: Performers at the Children's Palace in Pyongyang.

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Exclusive Behind-the-Scenes Clip

The Hollywood Reporter posts an exclusive behind-the-scenes clip about the making of Slavery By Another Name, which premieres at Sundance on 1/23, before coming to a theater near you (the UAlbany Performing Arts Center) on 2/3.

"The documentary Slavery by Another Name will have its premiere Monday, Jan. 23, at noon at the Temple Theatre as part of the official 2012 Sundance Film Festival competition program. Sam Pollard, who was a longtime editor on Spike Lee’s films, directed the project, which takes a hard look at the many ways involuntary servitude continued for African Americans long after the abolition of slavery."

"THR here hosts an exclusive behind-the-scenes clip that features Pollard, executive producer Douglas Blackmon and several of the descendants whose stories are told in the film."

See the clip.

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