NYS Writers Institute, November 7, 2014
7:00 p.m. Film screening and discussion | Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue,
Downtown Campus

NOTE: Due to an unforeseen schedule conflict, David Shire regrets that he will be unable to attend the film screening

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola | United States, 1974, 113 minutes, color
Starring Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield

In this brilliant psychological thriller, a surveillance expert experiences a moral crisis when he comes to believe that the targets of his spying activities will be murdered. Winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes, the film also received an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. Composer David Shire’s score is widely celebrated as a deeply probing character study of protagonist Harry Caul. Francis Ford Coppola called Shire’s score, “one of the most effective, most successful film scores that I’ve had.”

Sean Singer will discuss the film and its music immediately following the screening. A prize-winning poet, Singer immerses himself in music in order to generate poetic language and imagery. His first collection of poems, Discography, received the 2001 Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize, selected by W.S. Merwin, and the Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America. He has also published two chapbooks, Passport and Keep Right On Playing Through the Mirror Over the Water. He is the recipient of a 2005 Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and recently completed a Ph.D. in American Studies from Rutgers-Newark. He is also the author of “The Conversation: A Tape, A Plastic Wall, A Bug, A Saxophone,” a 2010 article in the scholarly journal, Rethinking History, which discusses the narrative function of the film’s jazz score.

Sponsored in conjunction with UAlbany’s School of Criminal Justice’s Civility, Surveillance, and Public Spaces Film Series

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