Meet The Filmma
ker: Gene Searchinger
Location
: NY Chapter office: 1375 Broadway (betwee
n 37th &\; 38th)
Reception:
*Free to Members! $15 for those without curren
t membership
RESERVATION REQUIRED due to LIMIT
ED SEATING.
Please Call 212-459-3630 ext. 200 or
via EMAIL kjensen@nyemmys.org
Gene Searchinger will show his film “\;The Writing Code.&#
8221\;
The Writing Code. \;This is a preview of one program in a major new series of f
ilms for Public Television on the most important invention in the history
of mankind. \;Something more important, even, than the wheel. \;It
is what created civilization. \;It is the incredible device we know a
s Writing. \;Even though writing is both our most creative technology
and our greatest art form, nobody has made films about it before. \;The Writing Code is funded by both t
he National Endowment for the Humanities and The National Science Foundati
on. This is Program Two, out of three. \; It is fully edited and ready
for screening, and it is of special interest to people who care about doc
umentary film making, because it is not quite finished. \;Technical ta
sks are still to be complete- So changes can still be made and the produce
rs want to know what you think before they “\;lock picture.”\; T
he films are of special interest, also, because they follow the hugely suc
cessful PBS series of films, by the same producers, on language. \;
The Human Language \;is
now seen as a “\;basic text”\; and is being used in over 3,000 c
olleges. \;Will this series fare as well? \;Is it equally informat
ive and entertaining?The distinguishing qualities of the human species are
that we walk upright, that our bodies don’\;t have hair, and that we
have large brains. \;The asset that made us top creature was that we
acquired language. \;The asset that gave us civilization was the inven
tion of writing. \;It happened a mere five thousand years ago. \;T
he first of these films shows where and how it happened. Program One, <
span style="font-style: italic\;">The Greatest Invention, is on
the origin of writing in what is now Iraq\; on \;Ancient Egyptian Hie
roglyphic\; the invention of Cherokee writing by an illiterate blacksmith\
; the man who wrote the traffic sign Don’\;t Even Think of Parking He
re\; how Chinese writing works\; and who writes fortune cookies. \;
The Greatest Invention is ab
out the nature of writing and what it has done for us. \;Program Two,
The Art and The Craft, is
about writing in stone\; how papyrus was made\; how Gutenberg changed the
world\; how the post office works\; the life and death of the typewriter\
; the invention of spaces between words\; how to make paper out of blue je
ans\; and about how writers write –\; with crime writer Elmore Leonar
d, poet Quincy Troupe, and author Margaret Atwood who says that “\;Ca
ll me Ishmael”\; is the best opening line she has ever read. \; <
b>The Writing Co
de shows that we are totally dependent on writing for the s
urvival of our species.
Gene Searchinger (producer/director) started making industrial films
(for oil companies, etc.) in the 60’\;s. \; Around the world ten
times. \; Later, films for the
Su
zanne Bauman (producer/director and editor) ha
s produced and directed films for all networks, for The Metropolitan Museu
m of Art, the National Gallery of Art, and the Smithsonian. \; Her las
t PBS special was the immensely popular Jackie Behind the Myth. She has won numerous awards includi
ng an Academy nomination for A Cuban
Odyssey and an Academy Special Merit award for La Belle É\;poque. Her feature-lengt
h documentary