The Film Center
will screen the
“generous and
intelligent doc”
Friday, August 23
through
Thursday, August 29
As a venue that celebrates all art forms and a public program of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Gene Siskel Film Center mourns the loss of the celebrated Black author and Nobel laureate Toni Morrison. Before her passing, the Siskel had already scheduled a week-long run of the acclaimed documentary Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am from Friday, August 23 through Thursday, August 29 at the Gene Siskel Film Center.
Directed by longtime friend and noted photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, this documentary portrait of the great African American novelist is as rich and abundant as the extraordinary woman it depicts.
OFFICIAL TRAILER
TONI MORRISON: THE PIECES I AM
At its heart is a meaty interview with Morrison, a warm but formidable presence as she recalls her remarkable life as a book-crazy girl in an Ohio steel town, a schoolteacher raising two children on her own, an influential editor at Random House, and an author who revolutionized writing about race in America en route to winning the Nobel Prize.
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[is] less a biography than an extended essay,
which is entirely a good thing.”
—A.O. Scott, The New York Times
The film’s perspective is broadened by friends and admirers including Oprah Winfrey, Angela Davis, Sonia Sanchez, and Fran Lebowitz, while, in the manner of Morrison’s celebrated anthology The Black Book, a steady stream of archival materials and works by notable Black artists (Jacob Lawrence, Gordon Parks, Kara Walker, et al.) evokes the immensity of African American experience to which she gave such eloquent shape.
does so many things so well that it’s often like
watching several fine films at once.
Look for this one to be
front and center in its category come Oscar time.”
—A.O. Scott, The New York Times
All screenings are at the Gene Siskel Film Center of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, located at 164 N. State St. For more information, click here.
About the Gene Siskel Film Center of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Since 1972, the Gene Siskel Film Center of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago has presented cutting edge cinema to an annual audience that has grown to over 100,000. The Film Center’s programming includes annual film festivals that celebrate diverse voices and international cultures, premieres of trailblazing work by today’s independent filmmakers, restorations and revivals of essential films from cinema history, and insightful provocative discussions with filmmakers and media artists. Altogether, the Film Center hosts over 1,500 screenings and 200 filmmaker appearances every year. The Film Center was renamed the Gene Siskel Film Center in 2000 after the late, nationally celebrated film critic, Gene Siskel. Visit www.siskelfilmcenter.org to learn more and find out what’s playing today.
About the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
For 150 years, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) has been a leader in educating the world’s most influential artists, designers, and scholars. Located in downtown Chicago with a fine arts graduate program ranked number two by U.S. News and World Report, SAIC provides an interdisciplinary approach to art and design as well as world-class resources, including the Art Institute of Chicago museum, on-campus galleries, and state-of-the-art facilities. SAIC’s undergraduate, graduate, and post-baccalaureate students have the freedom to take risks and create the bold ideas that transform Chicago and the world—as seen through notable alumni and faculty such as Michelle Grabner, David Sedaris, Elizabeth Murray, Richard Hunt, Georgia O’Keeffe, Cynthia Rowley, Nick Cave, and LeRoy Neiman. Learn more at saic.edu.
Send your film-screening updates to Reel Chicago Editor Dan Patton, dan@reelchicago.com.
