August 19, 2021: A conversation with film historian David Thomson and director Douglas McGrath

Join us for a conversation with celebrated film critic David Thomson about his latest book, A Light in the Dark: A History of Movie Directors. Joined by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Douglas McGrath, Thomson will discuss the visionary directors who have shaped modern cinema, including both landmark works and forgotten films from classic directors like Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, and Jean Renoir, and contemporary directors such as Barry Jenkins, Jane Campion, and Quentin Tarantino.

“They [directors] were unknown once; then they became heroes and masters. And now it is possible to see that they might even fade away, because the process and the cameras have minds (or a mindlessness) of their own that cannot be denied.”  – David Thomson  

“…sometimes, his books deliver greater pleasures than the multiplex itself…” – Nathan Heller, The New York Times

David Thomson is the author of the newly published A Light in the Dark: A History of Movie Directors, as well as more than twenty-five other books about cinema, including The New Biographical Dictionary of Film and How to Watch a Movie. Thomson taught film studies at Dartmouth College and has been a regular contributor to The New York Times, Film Comment, Movieline, Salon, and The New Republic. He has served on the selection committee for the New York Film Festival and wrote the award-winning documentary The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind.

Douglas McGrath is an American screenwriter, film director, and actor. McGrath was nominated for an Academy Award and a BAFTA award for his Bullets Over Broadway screenplay. He was twice nominated for a Writers Guild of America award, in 1995 for Bullets over Broadway, and in 1997 for Emma. McGrath also directed Nicholas Nickleby and Becoming Mike Nichols.