‘The Golden Age of Norman Corwin’
Though almost a forgotten figure today, Norman Corwin was the “poet laureate of radio drama” during WWII, whose stirring war-themed radio plays helped sell America on the justness of defeating the Nazis. A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin features testimonies from Walter Cronkite, Robert Altman, Norman Lear and Studs Terkel as well as excerpts from Corwin’s radio show, all of which confirm how a single 1945 radio broadcast could have captured 60 million listeners more than half the nation. The film was directed by Eric Simonson and produced by Simonson and with Corinne Marrinan. Marrinan will be present at the screening to take questions from the audience.
Daniel Johnston is an artist whose shows and underground tapes of original songs regularly sell out. He is also a manic-depressive whose life medicated with and without the help of prescriptions has been filmed by himself and others for more than 20 years. Produced by Henry S. Rosenthal and directed by Jeff Feuerzeig, The Devil and Daniel Johnston examines the line between creativity and madness and reveals a life of accomplishment, achievement and sorrow. Feuerzeig will be present at the screening to take questions from the audience.
Admission to all screenings in the Academy/UCLA Contemporary Documentary Series is free. The Linwood Dunn Theater is located at the Academy’s Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study, 1313 North Vine Street, in Hollywood, at the northwest corner of Fountain Avenue and Vine Street. Parking is available behind the building through the entrance on Homewood Avenue, one block north of Fountain. For more information, call (310) 247-3600 or (310) 206-FILM.
Academy documentaries
Press Release: Beverly Hills, CA The Oscar®-winning documentary short subjects of 1969 and 1970 and the winning documentary feature of 1969 will screen on Monday, October 16, at 7:30 p.m. at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and SciencesLinwood Dunn Theater as the next installment of “Oscars Docs, Part Two: Academy Award®-Winning Documentaries 19611976.” The 11-week series showcases the short and feature-length documentaries honored each year by the Academy.
Czechoslovakia 1968, produced by Robert M. Fresco and Denis Sanders for the United States Information Agency (USIA), captured the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in the spring of 1968. The film, a compilation of smuggled footage shot by Czech television stations and material obtained from the USSR’s Sovfoto Agency, took home the Oscar for Documentary Short Subject in 1969. A 35mm print from the UCLA Film & Television Archive will be screened courtesy of Sanders-Fresco Film Makers and the USIA.
Arthur Rubinstein: Love of Life highlights the piano virtuosos determinedly joyous attitude and boundless enthusiasm for music. Producers Bernard Chevry, Bernard Gavoty and François Reichenbach followed Rubinstein for three months and made extensive use of home movies to capture the man and the artist. A 35mm print of the 1969 Academy Award winner for Documentary Feature, purchased from Bernard Chevry for the Academy Film Archive, will be screened courtesy of Midem Productions.
In Interviews with My Lai Veterans, producer-director Joseph Strick set out to uncover the truths of the 1968 Vietnamese village massacre by speaking with American servicemen who were there. Though the five ex-soldiers who agreed to be interviewed spoke easily of committing murder, they would not discuss any sex crimes. Even after winning the Oscar for Documentary Short Subject, the film was rejected by all but one of the U.S. public television stations. A new 35mm print of the film, preserved by the Academy Film Archive, will be screened courtesy of Laser Film Corporation.
The Academy Award winner for Documentary Feature in 1970, Woodstock, will be screened on Monday, October 23, at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater. A cast and crew reunion will be held at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater the following night, Tuesday, October 24. Both events will start at 7:30 p.m.
Passes for “Oscars Docs, Part Two: Academy Award-Winning Documentaries 19611976” are available at a cost of $30 for the general public and $25 for Academy members and students with valid ID. Tickets for individual evenings of the series are available for $5 for the general public and $3 for Academy members and students with valid ID. Passes and tickets may be purchased by mail, in person at the Academy during regular business hours or, depending on availability, on the night of the screening when the doors open at 6:30 p.m. The Academy’s Linwood Dunn Theater is located at 1313 North Vine Street in Hollywood. For more information, call (310) 247-3600.
Sept. 26:.
‘To Be Alive’ & ‘The Eleanor Roosevelt Story’ screening
Press Release: Beverly Hills, CA – The Oscar®-winning documentaries of 1965 and 1966 will screen on Monday, October 2, at 7:30 p.m., in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Linwood Dunn Theater as the next installment of “Oscar’s Docs, Part Two: Academy Award®-Winning Documentaries 1961 – 1976.” The 11-week series showcases the short and feature-length documentaries honored each year by the Academy.
To Be Alive! was commissioned by S.C. Johnson and Son, Inc. for the 1964 New York World’s Fair and took home the Oscar for Documentary Short Subject the following year. The film was declared ineligible for awards consideration in 1964 because it existed only in a three-strip version, but S.C. Johnson, Francis Thompson and the MGM special effects department went on to create a single-strip 70mm version, which did qualify To Be Alive! for the 1965 Academy Awards. A new 70mm print of the film, preserved by the Academy Film Archive from a 70mm Ultra-Panavision composite negative, will be screened courtesy of S.C. Johnson Wax & Co.
The Eleanor Roosevelt Story received the Academy Award for Documentary Feature in 1965. Richard Kaplan’s film is a portrait of Mrs. Roosevelt in both her personal life and her public life, focusing on events that affected and encouraged her. A 35mm print of the film, preserved by the Academy Film Archive, will be screened courtesy of MGM/UA.
Julia Hammid, daughter of Alexander Hammid, the co-director of To Be Alive! and Kaplan, director of The Eleanor Roosevelt Story, will participate in a panel discussion as part of the evening.
The progress of three Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) workers in a poor African-American neighborhood in Atlanta is captured in A Year Towards Tomorrow. The film, which won the Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject in 1966, employs reenactments using real “VISTAs” and narration by Paul Newman to portray the experiences of volunteers in the first year of the program. A 35mm print of A Year Towards Tomorrow, courtesy of Sun Dial Films for the Office of Economic Opportunity, will be screened.
The War Game, which won the Oscar for Documentary Feature in 1966, is composed almost entirely of dramatizations. Based on the British government’s acknowledged preparedness plans, Peter Watkins’ film simulates a Soviet missile attack and its aftermath in southeastern England during a limited nuclear war. A new 35mm print of the film will be screened courtesy of the BBC.
Passes for “Oscar’s Docs, Part Two: Academy Award-Winning Documentaries 1961-1976” are available at a cost of $30 for the general public and $25 for Academy members and students with valid ID. Tickets for individual evenings of the series are available for $5 for the general public and $3 for Academy members and students with valid ID. Passes and tickets may be purchased by mail, in person at the Academy during regular business hours or, depending on availability, on the night of the screening when the doors open at 6:30 p.m. The Academy’s Linwood Dunn Theater is located at 1313 North Vine Street in Hollywood. For more information, call (310) 247-3600.