Event

CAMERA MAN: A CONVERSATION WITH DANA STEVENS
2021-2022 Hartman Symposium
Hosted by Emily Wilson 

Co-sponsors: Comparative Literature and Critical Theory, Cinema & Media Studies, Kelly Writers House

Monday, April 18, 6:30 PM ET
Kelly Writers House | 3805 Locust Walk | Arts Café 

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Join us at Writers House on Monday, April 18 (6:30 PM ET) for a discussion of Buster Keaton, creative non-fiction, biography, and cultural history with one of our country’s greatest film critics, DANA STEVENS of Slate. Professor EMILY WILSON, chair of Penn's program in Comparative Literature and Critical Theory, will host. In her book Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema and the Invention of the Twentieth Century Dana Stevens explores the life and work of legendary silent film star Buster Keaton, who was born in 1895, the same year the Lumière brothers first publicly projected moving pictures. Stevens spins the implications of this convergence into a unique work of literary nonfiction about how one great filmmaker’s life intertwined with the birth of a medium and of modern American life. Camera Man is a meditation on modernity that weaves together the story of one of the most enigmatic and beloved artists of the last century with the events and cultural forces that made his life and work possible. A reception will follow the conversation. Register here to attend in person.

Masks welcome. Please stay home if you feel ill. 

DANA STEVENS is one of the country’s best-known film critics and culture podcasters, with a loyal social media following. She is the film critic at Slate and a co-host of two Slate podcasts, the Culture Gabfest and the Spoiler Special. She has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Atlantic, Bookforum and Aperture magazine. She lives in New York City with her family and can be found on Twitter and Instagram as @thehighsign. Camera Man is her first book.