Auteur, Author: Film & Literature 2016

June 1–5, 2016

Presented in collaboration with the Bay Area Book Festival, this series celebrates the dialogue between film and books and includes many literary luminaries in person.

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  • O Amor Natural

  • Welcome To This House, a film on Elizabeth Bishop

  • Fat City

  • The Age of Czeslaw Milosz

  • Nelson Algren Live

  • The Black Stallion

  • Upcoming
    Films
  • Upcoming
    Events
  • Selected
    Objects
  • Past
    Films
  • Past
    Events

Past Films

  • The Age of Czeslaw Milosz

    Juozas Javaitis
    Lithuania, 2012
    Wednesday, June 1 6:30 PM

    Introduced by Robert Hass, Mark Danner, & Anthony Milosz
    A sweeping look at the Nobel Prize–winning poet’s tumultuous century, made intimate by his own exquisitely worded memories. Milosz, who taught at Berkeley, said that true poetry is “the passionate pursuit of the Real.”

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  • Innocence of Memories: Orhan Pamuk’s Museum and Istanbul

    Grant Gee
    United Kingdom, 2015
    Thursday, June 2 7 PM

    Introduced by Jonathan Lethem
    Turkey’s Nobel laureate wrote a (fictional) narration for this exploration of his Museum of Innocence in Istanbul. “A mesmerizing, original meditation on love and the city” (The Guardian).

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  • Welcome To This House, a film on Elizabeth Bishop

    Barbara Hammer
    US, 2015
    Friday, June 3 6 PM

    Introduced by Katrina Dodson
    Acclaimed filmmaker Barbara Hammer penetrates the life of the poet Elizabeth Bishop through the places she loved in this new documentary. With short Starfish Aorta Colossus, a poem by Paolo Javier. 

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  • Fat City

    John Huston
    United States, 1972

    New Digital Restoration

    Friday, June 3 8 PM

    Leonard Gardner and David Thomson in Conversation
    Leonard Gardner wrote the screenplay for this adaptation of his novel about small-time boxing in Stockton; John Huston made it a screen masterpiece, “authentic, utterly convincing, compassionate" (Michael Ondaatje).

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  • The Black Stallion

    Carroll Ballard
    United States, 1979

    New Digital Restoration!
    Recommended for ages 7 & up

    Saturday, June 4 2 PM

    Carroll Ballard in Person
    The Walter Farley story about a boy's friendship with a magnificent Arabian horse becomes a visual fantasy, from the opening shipwreck, to lyric scenes on a desert island, to the exciting racing championship.

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  • Nelson Algren Live

    Oscar Bucher
    2016
    Saturday, June 4 5 PM

    Oscar Bucher, Barry Gifford, Dan Simon, & Philip Kaufman in Person
    A fabulous introduction for a new generation to this hippest of Chicago writers from the forties and fifties. Barry Gifford, Don DeLillo, actor Willem Defoe, and others pay tribute at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater.

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  • O Amor Natural

    Heddy Honigmann
    Netherlands, 1996
    Saturday, June 4 7:30 PM

    Introduced by Katrina Dodson & Idra Novey
    David Peoples, Siciliana Trevino in Person
    On a Rio beach, seniors recite the erotic poetry of Carlos Drummond to show “we’re old—we’re not dead!” “An idiosyncratic homage to Brazil’s most beloved poet. A lovely film!” (Village Voice). With short New Mo Cut: David Peoples' Lost Film of Moe's Books.

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  • The Forbidden Christ

    Curzio Malaparte
    Italy, 1951
    Sunday, June 5 2 PM

    Introduced by Walter Murch
    Showing here for the first time, the only film by Italian author Curzio Malaparte is a visually stunning, morally trenchant entry in the neorealist genre. 

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  • Austerlitz

    Stan Neumann
    France, 2014
    Sunday, June 5 4:45 PM

    Introduced by Dana Spiotta
    Literary intrigue and narrative layers make this tour through W. G. Sebald’s last novel “a very Sebaldien film . . . a worthy homage to a modern literary giant” (Hollywood Reporter).

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  • And when I die I won't stay dead

    Billy Woodberry
    United States, Portugal, 2015

    BAMPFA Student Committee Pick!

    Sunday, June 5 7 PM

    Justin Desmangles, devorah major, & Al Young in Conversation
    From Billy Woodberry comes a lively and affecting look at the life of the black Beat poet Bob Kaufman, richly set to archival footage and “Kaufman’s jazz-inspired, enduringly quicksilver work” (Hollywood Reporter). Copresented by City Lights Bookstore.

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