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What does it mean to see your life reenacted as film? Could you imagine watching Robert De Niro play your father, Julianne Moore your mother? Describing the surreal process of adapting his memoir, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, into a film called Being Flynn, a master storyteller offers a compelling meditation on the very nature of grief, survival, and making art.
Nick Flynn is the author of three memoirs, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, The Ticking Is The Bomb, and most recently, The Reenactments. Flynn has worked as a ship’s captain, electrician, and caseworker for the working poor. His film credits include work as field poet and artistic collaborator on Darwin’s Nightmare, which was nominated for an Academy Award, and executive producer/collaborator on Being Flynn. Each spring he teaches poetry, nonfiction, and collaboration at the University of Houston, and the rest of the year he is in, or near, Brooklyn.
Elvis Mitchell is host of the pop culture radio show The Treatment on KCRW 89.9 FM, and film curator of the Film Independent at LACMA film series. Previously, he hosted the TCM interview program Under the Influence and was also chief film critic for “Movieline” and a visiting lecturer at Harvard in Visual and Environmental Studies and African American Studies. Prior to this, Mitchell served as the film critic at the New York Times and was the entertainment critic for NPR’s Weekend Edition. He produced and co-created The Black List, Volume One, a documentary focusing on achievement in the African American community and was nominated by the WGA for his work on The AFI Lifetime Achievement Award on Sidney Poitier.
Photo Credit: Geordie Woods
ALOUD audio is presented by the Library Foundation of Los Angeles and made possible through support provided by The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, the Righteous Persons Foundation, City National Bank, K&L Gates, KPMG, Sue and David Rosenblum, Wallis Foundation, Donna and Martin J. Wolff and The Boudjakdji Foundation. Additional support provided by The Council of the Library Foundation, Library Foundation members, and the Los Angeles Public Library. Media support provided by KPPC 83.9 FM and KUSC 91.5 FM. ALOUD theme composed by Larry Karush.