Writers Institute Hosts Filmmaker Paul J. Stekler, Young Poets, and Film Scholars David Thomson & Stephen Bach

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Film Scholar David Thomson

• Film Historian Stephen Bach

ALBANY, NY (10/08/2008)(readMedia)-- --

Paul J. Stekler, Award-winning Filmmaker of Political Documentaries, to Discuss his Work, October 22, 2008

Paul J. Stekler, prize-winning director of political documentaries, will screen and discuss his work including the new PBS "Frontline" special, "The Choice 2008," about the backgrounds and divergent political paths of Barack Obama and John McCain, on Wednesday, October 22, 2008 at 8:00 p.m. in the Recital Hall, Performing Arts Center, on the University at Albany's uptown campus. Earlier that same day at 4:15 p.m. the author will present an informal seminar on political filmmaking in Science Library 340, on the uptown campus. The events are sponsored by the New York State Writers Institute and UAlbany's Documentary Studies Program, and are free and open to the public.

Stekler is co-producer and co-writer most recently of the PBS "Frontline" special, "The Choice 2008." The film draws on in-depth interviews with the advisers, family and friends closest to Presidential candidates Barak Obama and John McCain, as well as with notable observers of American politics, who together tell the definitive story of these men and their ascent to their party's nominations. A coproduction of WGBH Boston and the Kirk Documentary Group, Ltd., "The Choice 2008" will air nationwide on October 14, 2008, with national rebroadcasts scheduled for October 26 and November 3.

Stekler received the Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize for "George Wallace: Settin' the Woods on Fire" (2000), which he produced and co-directed. The "Boston Globe" said, "The producers masterfully braid revealing political and personal subplots into the main story line, almost any of which could have been spun into a self-contained historical drama."

Stekler also produced and co-directed "Vote for Me: Politics in America" (1996), winner of Emmy, Peabody, and DuPont-Columbia Journalism awards. More recently, Stekler produced, directed, and wrote the PBS special, "Last Man Standing: Politics, Texas Style" (2004), about a 2002 contest for the Texas State Legislature. The film was nominated for the "outstanding achievement in television writing" award of the Writers Guild of America.

Stekler currently serves as director of the newly-founded Center for Politics and Governance at the LBJ School of Public Affairs of the University of Texas at Austin.

For additional information, contact the Writers Institute at 518-442-5620 or online at http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst.

Two New York State Poets, Winners of the Witter Bynner Poetry Fellowship, Awarded by the Library of Congress, to Red October 24, 2008

Monica Youn and Matthew Thorburn, two New York State poets who were recently awarded the Witter Bynner Poetry Fellowship of the Library of Congress by U. S. Poet Laureate Charles Simic, will read from their work on Friday, October 24, 2008 at 7:00 p.m. [NOTE EARLY START TIME] in the Carole Huxley Theatre of the New York State Museum in downtown Albany. The free event, which is open to the public, is sponsored by the New York Center for the Book, the New York State Library, and the New York State Writers Institute.

U. S. Poet Laureate Charles Simic has chosen two New York residents for the Witter Bynner Prize of the Library of Congress. The prize was created in 1980 to support the work of young poets and "new voices in poetry." Each winner receives a $10,000 fellowship. The New York Center for the Book and the New York State Library are sponsoring a reading by this year's honorees, Monica Youn and Matthew Thorburn.

The first Korean-American Rhodes Scholar and a former Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, Monica Youn is a media and entertainment attorney at NYU Law School's Brennan Center, as well as a creative writing instructor at Columbia University. Her collections include "Barter" (2003), and the forthcoming "Ignatz," which is inspired by the mouse of the early 20th century comic strip, "Krazy Kat." Her poems have appeared in numerous publications and collections, including the "Norton Anthology: Language for a New Century," (2008), "Asian American Poetry: The Next Generation" (2004), "Fence," "AGNI," and "Poetry Review."

In praise of "Barter," poet D. A. Powell said, "Not since Plath has poetry so taut and so dangerous graced a first book. . . . Within this debut volume, an elegant new voice, dazzling, haunting, immediate."

Matthew Thorburn, a business writer for an international law firm and founder of the little magazine "Good Foot," is a past winner of the "Mississippi Review" Prize and the Belfast Poetry Festival's first Festivo Prize. This past summer he served as a Walter E. Dakin Fellow at the Sewanee Writers' Conference, and is a past winner of a fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. His poems have appeared in "Poetry," "The Paris Review," and "The American Poetry Review." His first collection, "Subject to Change" (2004), deals with the mutable nature of language, memory, and meaning in everyday life.

Writing in the "New York Times Book Review," Stephen Burt said, "Few first books show as much pleasure in words as Matthew Thorburn's ‘Subject to Change.'"

For additional information, contact the Writers Institute at 518-442-5620 or online at http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst.

Major Film Scholars David Thomson and Stephen Bach to Speak Following the Screening of Jean Renoir's Short Film "A Day in the Country," on October 24, 2008

Two of America's wittiest film scholars, David Thomson and Stephen Bach, will speak following a screening of Jean Renoir's short classic film, "A Day in the Country" (1936) on Friday, October 24, 2008 at 7:30 p.m. in Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue on the University at Albany's downtown campus. The free event, which is open to the public, is sponsored by the New York State Writers Institute.

Best-selling film writers David Thomson and Stephen Bach will offer commentary and a broader discussion of cinema immediately following the screening of the French cinema classic, "A Day in the Country" (France, 1936, 40 minutes, b/w, DVD, French with English subtitles, directed by Jean Renoir).

The film tells the story of a young middle class woman, engaged to be married, who goes for an excursion with her mother in the countryside outside Paris. In the course of their outing, they are wooed by a charming pair of local laborers. Based on a short story by Guy de Maupassant, this short film is widely regarded as a cinematic gem.

David Thomson, major film critic and Hollywood biographer, has been called "probably the greatest living film critic and historian" ("Atlantic Monthly"). Thomson is best-known among film enthusiasts for his delightfully original reference work, "A Biographical Dictionary of Film." First published in 1975, the book has since undergone four major revisions (the fifth edition appeared as the "New Biographical Dictionary of Film" in 2004).

Thomson's most recent book is "Have You Seen...?: A Personal Introduction to 1000 Films" (2008). A companion guide to his famous dictionary, the new book addresses the question, "After 100 years of films, which ones are the best, and why?"

Of the new book, film critic Richard Schickel said, "What a prodigious, seductive and addictive achievement. David Thomson's short, sharp little essays rescue dozens of films from undeserved obscurity while questioning the inflated reputations of an equal number of sacred turkeys. He wears his erudition (and his research) lightly and the result is a book that is authoritative but never magisterial, good-natured yet never lazy or idly nostalgic. It is a monumental addition to the very short shelf of truly worthwhile books about the movies."

Steven Bach is both a leading film industry insider and film historian. As head of production for United Artists, he was centrally involved in the making of "Raging Bull," "Apocalypse Now," Woody Allen's "Manhattan," and dozens of other films. He is the author of four "New York Times" Notable Books, including "Leni: The Life and Work of Leni Riefenstahl" (2007), "Dazzler: The Life and Times of Moss Hart" (2001), "Marlene Dietrich: Life and Legend" (1992), and "Final Cut: Art, Money, and Ego in the Making of Heaven's Gate, the Film That Sank United Artists" (1985).

The "Los Angeles Times Book Review" called "Leni," "Brilliant. ... A compulsively readable and scrupulously crafted work . ..." Writing in the "New Yorker," Judith Thurman said, "First-rate . . . [a] richly fleshed-out portraiture and social history."

Steven Bach teaches Literature and Film at both Columbia University in New York and Bennington College in Vermont.

For additional information, contact the Writers Institute at 518-442-5620 or online at http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst.

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