Gish Prize Winner Smith to perform Letter from Birmingham Jail at Grace Cathedral, March 10.

Monday, March 10, 2014 7:30 pm

Letter from Birmingham Jail

Actor and playwright Anna Deavere Smith , Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize winner, returns to Grace Cathedral with renowned violinist Robert McDuffie for a performance of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail. This special event is one night only, and also features pianist Anne Epperson. Tickets on sale now - don't delay!
Tickets: $30 - $150

- See more at: http://www.gracecathedral.org/calendar/detail.php?cid=21747#sthash.qW9542Up.dpuf

LDGish.blogspot.com has subscribers and friends flying in for this special one night only event certain to memorable and moving.

James Patterson
1.415.516.3493

Gish Prize Wnner Anna Deavere Smith to Speak at Grace Cathedral March 9

Art and Human Rights

Guests: Anna Deavere Smith and Robert McDuffie

Interlocutor: The Very Rev. Dr. Jane Shaw

 Event is free and Open to the Public

 

 

Anna Deavere Smith

Anna Deavere Smith is an actress and playwright, and is said to have created a new form of theater. Her prizes include a MacArthur fellowship, the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Award, two Tony nominations, two Obies and others. She was runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize for her play Fires in the Mirror and has created over 15 one-person shows based on hundreds of interviews, most of which deal with social issues. These shows include Twilight: Los Angeles, about the Los Angeles race riots of 1992, and Let Me Down Easy, focused on health care in the United States. In popular culture she can be seen in Nurse Jackie, The West Wing, The American President, Rachel Getting Married, Philadelphia, and other movies and television programs. She has received several honorary degrees: among them from Juilliard, University of Pennsylvania, Spelman, Williams, Northwestern, and Radcliffe. She serves on the boards of the Museum of Modern Art, The Aspen Institute and Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. She received the Dean’s Medal from Stanford Medical School and is University Professor at NYU. Ms. Smith is a Trustee at Grace Cathedral, and served as the cathedral’s inaugural Artist in Residence in 2012. She continues to develop On Grace, the work she premiered at Grace Cathedral on February 17 and 18, 2012.

(Editor's note: Kerry Stowell and James Patterson saw Twilight: Los Angeles at Ford's Theater in Washington, DC)

 

 

 

Robert McDuffie

Robert McDuffie is a Grammy nominated artist that has appeared with most of the world's major orchestras. He recently gave the world premiere of Philip Glass’ Violin Concerto No. 2, and The American Four Seasons, a work written for Robert McDuffie with the Toronto Symphony.   In the 2010 - 2011 season, Mr. McDuffie completed a 30-city tour of the United States with the Venice Baroque Orchestra, where he paired the Glass Four Seasons with the Vivaldi Four Seasons. He then recorded The American Four Seasons with the London Philharmonic and Marin Alsop on Philip Glass' Orange Mountain Music label. His acclaimed Telarc and EMI recordings include the violin concertos of Mendelssohn, Bruch, Adams, Glass, Barber, Rozsa, Bernstein, William Schuman, and Viennese violin favorites. Future plans include a collaboration with Mike Mills, of the iconic rock band R.E.M., the Aspen Festival and performances with the Youth Orchestra of the Americas. He is founder of the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia and of the Rome Chamber Music Festival in Rome, Italy.

 

 

 This event is part of the Sunday morning Forum at Grace Cathedral, March 9 at 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Free and open  to the public. Deavere and McDuffiee will appear in a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr play at Grace on Monday, March 10. Tickets range from $30 to $150 for this performance and tickets may be purchased while available from GraceCathedral.org

James Patterson
Member, California Historical Society
Member, Alabama Historical Association
LM Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum
1.415.516.3493

LDGish.Blogspot.com Celebrates Martin Luther King Jr Holiday

Karen screened the below on January 20 at The Film Forum. Become a member of Film Forum today and keep classic and international film alive in the West Village.

KING: A FILMED RECORD… MONTGOMERY TO MEMPHIS Mon, January 20 7:30 ONLY Back by popular demand! In celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, an epic record of the Civil Rights movement's greatest leader, with the great speeches shown in their entirety, and featuring Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, James Earl Jones, Anthony Quinn, and Charlton Heston in sequences directed by Sidney Lumet and Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Here is my 2014 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr holiday card designed exclusively for me by SF King Works Inside I had a paragraph on my dad's Guard service in Alabama in the 1960s. Response came back people wanted more content. My next order will have more about Dad and a paragraph on may issues and values. Thanks for all the great feedback from coast-to-coast and researchers from BFI. James Patterson Member, California Historical Society Member, Alabama Historical Society Member, Agricultural History Society, Annual Meetings at Provo in June

James Patterson and Film 50 Screenings

Here we post Emily's Film 50 Program. Only Wednesday's so leave work early for great lectures with great films. 

 Film 50: History of Cinema

January 22, 2014 - May 7, 2014

A UC Berkeley course open to the public as space permits. Lectures by Emily Carpenter
Emily Carpenter is a lecturer in the Department of Film and Media at UC Berkeley.
BAM/PFA and the UC Berkeley Department of Film and Media copresent the film-lecture course Film 50, now celebrating its twenty-first year. This year’s course, taught by Emily Carpenter, showcases an exciting lineup of world cinema classics, globetrotting between continents and featuring strong examples from various film movements and historical periods. The film selection also draws upon the strengths of the BAM/PFA film collection and our ability to present the film experience faithfully, with a high standard of technical presentation. We encourage you to come have a communal viewing experience while learning about the complex medium of film.

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Special admission prices applyGeneral admission, $11.50; BAM/PFA members, $7.50; UC Berkeley students, $5.50; Seniors, disabled persons, UC Berkeley faculty and staff, non-UC Berkeley students, and youth 17 and under, $8.50. Programs often sell out, so we recommend purchasing advance tickets.

Presale ticketsMembers at the Sponsor level and above may purchase tickets during an exclusive ticket-buying window from December 8 to 15. Upper level members are sent a promo code in the mail; call us at (510) 642-5186 if you'd like to receive the promo code by phone.



Wednesday, January 22, 2014
3:10 p.m. Introduction to Film Language plus Avant-Garde Shorts
Lecture by Emily Carpenter. Several short avant-garde films demonstrate the creative potential of film as an expressive medium. Plus an introduction film terminology.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014
3:10 p.m. The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog
Alfred Hitchcock (U.K., 1926). Digital Restoration! Judith Rosenberg on piano. Lecture by Emily Carpenter. Hitchcock’s first foray into the thriller genre, starring Ivor Novello as the eponymous lodger who just may be a serial killer. The director himself called it “the first true Hitchcock movie.” (90 mins)

Wednesday, February 5, 2014
3:10 p.m. M
Fritz Lang (Germany, 1931). Digital Restoration! Lecture by Emily Carpenter. A precursor to American film noir, Fritz Lang’s masterpiece is a terrifying excursion into an urban underworld where it is difficult to distinguish morally between the activities of organized crime and law enforcement. With Peter Lorre. (99 mins) A personal favorite. How did Lorre ever overcome this role to become a US star?

Wednesday, February 12, 2014
3:10 p.m. Singin’ In the Rain
Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly (U.S., 1952). Lecture by Emily Carpenter. Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds dance their way across the screen in one of the greatest American musicals of all time, set during Hollywood’s transition from silent films to sound. (102 mins) I never liked this film.

Wednesday, February 19, 2014
3:10 p.m. Citizen Kane
Orson Welles (U.S., 1941). Lecture by Emily Carpenter. A childhood memory is the ultimate red herring in Welles’s audacious debut, which still tops many critics’ lists of the best films of all time. “Inventing modern cinema is a tough act to follow,” Welles remarked later in his career. (119 mins) It has grown on me over the years.

Wednesday, February 26, 2014
3:10 p.m. There’s Always Tomorrow
Douglas Sirk (U.S., 1956). Lecture by Emily Carpenter. Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray rekindle an old flame in Douglas Sirk's wonderful, melancholy melodrama that "demolishes the social fantasy of the 'happy home’” (Time Out). (84 mins) I never liked this film.

Wednesday, March 5, 2014
3:10 p.m. Early Summer
Yasujiro Ozu (Japan, 1951). Lecture by Emily Carpenter. "I was interested in getting much deeper than just the story itself; I wanted to depict the cycles of life, the transience of life" (Ozu). An exquisite, faintly melancholic portrait of a family, with the radiant Setsuko Hara as the daughter on whose marriage everything depends. (135 mins) A personal favorite and one of the films ever.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014
3:10 p.m. Umberto D.
Vittorio De Sica (Italy, 1952). Lecture by Emily Carpenter. De Sica’s “simple, almost Chaplinesque story of a man fighting to preserve his dignity is even more moving for its firm grasp of everyday activities. . . . A truly great film” (Chicago Reader). (89 mins) Wonderful experience.

Wednesday, March 19, 2014
3:10 p.m. Los olvidados
Luis Buñuel (Mexico, 1950). New 35mm Print! Lecture by Emily Carpenter. Luis Buñuel’s unsentimental portrait of slum kids in Mexico City. “Its matter-of-fact brilliance continues to astonish” (BBC). (88 mins) Brilliant film making.

Wednesday, April 2, 2014
3:10 p.m. La Pointe Courte
Agnès Varda (France, 1954). New 35mm print! Lecture by Emily Carpenter. Made outside the French film industry on a shoestring budget, Varda’s 1954 debut about two reunited lovers in a Mediterranean fishing port has been called “truly the first film of the nouvelle vague.” (90 mins) I am a Varda enthusiast.

Wednesday, April 9, 2014
3:10 p.m. Il posto
Ermanno Olmi (Italy, 1961). Lecture by Emily Carpenter. Olmi’s humane, funny, and heartbreaking portrait of a young man embarking on his first job in Milan captures the alienation and regimentation of the working world. (93 mins) A longtime film companion.

Wednesday, April 16, 2014
3:10 p.m. Contempt
Jean-Luc Godard (France, 1963). New Digital Restoration! Lecture by Emily Carpenter. Godard’s Homeric homage to Fritz Lang, “one of the defining moments of modernist filmmaking”(Film Comment). With Brigitte Bardot, Michel Piccoli, Jack Palance, and Fritz Lang himself. (103 mins) I really like this film.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014
3:10 p.m. My Own Private Idaho
Gus Van Sant (U.S., 1991). Lecture by Emily Carpenter. Gus Van Sant’s melancholic portrait of street hustlers in Portland follows a narcoleptic Mike (River Phoenix) and his best friend Scott (Keanu Reeves) as they embark on a journey to find Mike’s mother. With “magnetic performances from Reeves and Phoenix" (Rolling Stone). Brilliant film making.

Wednesday, April 30, 2014
3:10 p.m. After Life
Hirokazu Kore-eda (Japan, 1999). Lecture by Emily Carpenter. Welcome to the afterlife of Kore-eda’s remarkable film, where a busy crew of angels reenacts the favorite memories of the recently deceased. Entwining documentary and reality, After Life is, as Kore-eda states, "a film about memory, and also a film about what it means to make films." (115 mins) Excellent!

Wednesday, May 7, 2014
3:10 p.m. The Five Obstructions
Lars Von Trier, Jørgen Leth (Denmark, 2003). Lecture by Emily Carpenter. In this playfully profound documentary, Dogme demon Lars von Trier challenges great Dane filmmaker Jørgen Leth to remake The Perfect Human, his 1968 masterpiece, according to devious rules that test the elder statesman's creative and ethical limits. (90 mins) I look forward to seeing this for the first time.

Lillian Gish and James Patterson say Happy Chaplin Centennial

It was a wonderful centennial celebration at the historic Castro Theater in San Francisco for the Charlie Chaplin centennial January 11, 2014. Screenings began at 1 pm Pacific with three mutual shorts: The Vagabon with Edna Purviance and heavy Eric Campbell,  (1916), Easy Street with Edna Purviance and Eric Campbell (1916), and The Cure with Edna Purviance, Eric Campbell and the hilarious Henry Bergman (1917).  A large crowd, not a sell out, enjoyed the attractions. Note to subscribers: Our Chaplin packages posted last week.

We were unable to attend the mid-afternoon screening of The Kid (1921) with the adorable little Jackie Coogan. The evening screening of The Gold Rush ( 1925) was a sellout. All shown with the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra.

Lillian Gish, Tom Wopat, and James Patterson

The first thing Tom Wopat said to me: "You're the Lillian Gish man!"

Wopat starred at the Sondheim in 2013's "The Trip to Bountiful" as the sheriff, originated by Frank Overton in the NBC and 1953 broadway productions. It was a great part for him and we discussed the play, hailed as "Lillian Gish's masterpiece" at the time by the New York Times. Wopat appeared January 9 at Feinstein's at Hotel Nikko. His musical program of standards included "The Tender Trap." His 80-minute program pleased teh crowd. See TomWopat.com.





 

James Patterson with Tom Wopat, Tony-nominated for "Annie Get Your Gun," at Hotel Nikko. Introduced by Michael Feinstein and Christine Ebersol. He may soon play my alma mater.

 

"You guys lost to the Seminoles," he said. "You did beat Bama, though." In addition to be a Gish fan, Wopat is a football fan and a Wisconsin farmer. And he likes LDGish.blogspot.com!

Cheers,

 

James Patterson

(415) 516-3493

Poetry, Lillian Gish, Lori Menger, and James Patterson

December 28, 2013

Dear Mr. Patterson,

I thoroughly enjoyed your magazine article about Lillian Gish. I have a small connection to her. My grandmother Gladys Fariss Gilbert and Lillian were classmates in Shawnee, OK. In the book Life and Lillian Gish, Ch. 15, p. 72 is a reflection written by my grandmother.

My grandmother wrote many poems and one for Lillian Gish I have attached.

Thanks again for the article.

Warmest regards,

Lori Menger  '83

James Patterson replies: Thanks for your email and gift of your grandmother's beautiful poetry to Lillian. I recall your grandmother's reflection from that 1932 book.  I have folders of poetry people have sent over the years. It is a wonderful tribute to Lillian. 

Gish Prize Winner to perform Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from a Birmingham Jail March 10 at Grace Cathedral

On March 10, we welcome Gish Prize winner Anna Deavere Smith, "Philadelphia," "The West Wing," "Twilight: LA," back to Grace Cathedral as she performs Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail with violinist Robert McDuffie, and we will have the opportunity to discuss the arts and human rights with both of them at the 9:30 am Forum.

 

Dr. Jane Shaw will be teaching a short Lent course on the arts and empathy, as we continue to explore how we cross the divides in our nation, and how faith and art can help us in the important work of reaching out and healing our communities.

 

Visit:

Grace Cathedral 

1100 California St.

San Francisco, CA  94108

Check for photos as date approaches.