Developing a distinctive voice in American fiction ain't no easy thing; there's a bit of competition out there. But Barry Gifford-poet, essayist, screenwriter, and novelist-has cultivated a voice that captures American weird, modulated by the quirks of regional cultural, the concussive body blows of pulp, and a sensual prose that is both beautiful and damned. His nervy, cringingly comic novels-Wild at Heart and others-have been adapted for the screen, in the case of Perdita Durango by himself, and he has written original scripts, including Lost Highway (with David Lynch), and City of Ghosts (with Matt Dillon). A Bay Area resident, Gifford's fascination for film extends beyond fiction to idiosyncratic essays gathered in books like The Devil Thumbs a Ride & Other Unforgettable Films. This tribute finds Gifford both onscreen and off, reading from his fiction and poetry and in a conversation about the complex transformation of prose to pictures. The Behind the Scenes presentation on Thursday, November 29 includes the West Coast premiere of Lucian Georgescu's Romanian rhapsody, The Phantom Father. The tribute also offers rare episodes of David Lynch's TV series Hotel Room, aired soon after Twin Peaks. Join us for three evenings with a writer who is truly “wild at heart.”