(Credit: CNS photo/courtesy 11th Street Lot.). Instead, literature was a "plunge into reality.". Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here. Flannery O'Connor is seen in this undated photo. “People respond with passion,” Coffman told CNS in between movie screenings at film festivals last fall. The animated discussions after the screenings only reinforced the directors’ views that O’Connor still has something to say to readers and audiences right now. How can people go to church AND commit murder, she wonders...? In a statement for the film’s award, Burns, the award-winning documentarian, called “Flannery” an “extraordinary documentary that allows us to follow the creative process of one of our country’s greatest writers.” He said it “provides us a glimpse into her life, including her Catholic faith, her unusual sensitivity to race as a Southern white woman, and her daily struggles with illness and the prospect and reality of an early mortality.”, He hoped “a new generation of readers will rediscover the writings of Flannery O’Connor because of this film.”, That’s something Father Bosco and Coffman are happy to promote. In the end they settled on motion graphics to tell the stories of her works, which also pay tribute to O’Connor’s early work as a cartoonist. A Southerner--young, poor, ambitious but uneducated--determines to become something in the world. “Her stories are always haunted with this sense of mystery,” the priest said, adding they bring readers to a “place of uncomfortability” where they know there is something more going on and “are being asked to go on a journey of self-revelation.”. Tommy Lee Jones, Alice Walker, Mary Karr, Tobias Wolff, Hilton Als, Alice McDermott, Bill T. Jones, Lucinda Williams--all share their opinions, their art and their music in this feature-length, NEH-funded documentary. The biographical documentary Flannery was awarded the first Library of Congress/Ken Burns prize for film last year and has been a favorite on the film festival circuit since its premiere. It was an ugly incident, a microcosm of what was going on in the country at large, with the McCarthy hearings and the general mood of paranoia. "Anything that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the northern reader, unless it is grotesque, in which case it is going to be called realistic..." Flannery O'Connor,... View production, box office, & company info. Flannery is a 2019 documentary film from Long Distance Productions about American novelist Flannery O'Connor. If you’re reading this article, it’s thanks to the generosity of people like you, who have made Aleteia possible. [14], Flannery received generally positive reviews from critics. "Flannery" suggests that she got involved mainly because of her crush on poet Robert Lowell (the ringleader), but this does the whole subject—and O'Connor—a disservice. Perhaps a few dissenting voices would have enriched the portrait and deepened the inquiry. “She says very boldly: I write because I’m a Catholic,” but her works don’t have a sense of piety or triumphalism, he added, saying she focused more on the brokenness of society, especially in America, and even more particularly, in the South. Support Aleteia with as little as $1. It only takes a minute. "[13] In October 2019, it was awarded the prize for best Documentary Feature at the Austin Film Festival. [1][2], The film had its world premiere in October 2019 at the opening night of the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival,[3] as well as additional screenings at the New Orleans Film Festival and Austin Film Festival. I am not writing a conventional novel, and I think that the quality of the novel I write will derive precisely from the peculiarity or aloneness, if you will, of the experience I write from. "Flannery," which Bosco co-directed with Elizabeth Coffman, is respectful, with a murderer's row of interview subjects—both O'Connor's friends and family, but also contemporary writers—weighing in on O'Connor's legacy. “Flannery” was an eight-year project of co-directors Elizabeth Coffman, an associate professor of film and digital media at Loyola University Chicago, and Jesuit Father Mark Bosco, vice president for mission and ministry at Georgetown University. WASHINGTON (CNS) — “Flannery,” a documentary about the life and writings of Catholic writer Flannery O’Connor, opens in select virtual cinemas nationwide July 17. It was not her finest hour, that's for sure. For starters, there was only one filmed interview with O’Connor, and one short piece of her as a child — teaching a chicken to walk backward — and not many photos. "Flannery," a documentary about the life and writings of Catholic writer O'Connor, opens in select virtual cinemas nationwide July 17, 2020. The online viewings, listed at www.flanneryfilm.com/calendar, will follow a similar pattern, of sorts, this year with four live, virtual discussions on Facebook with filmmakers, a guest moderator and panelists focusing on O’Connor themes. Father Bosco, an O’Connor expert, said he wanted the movie to give equal time to the writer’s Catholic faith, her white privilege, and her sense of being a Southern person and someone with a disability. [8], The score for the film, by award-winning composer Miriam Cutler ("RBG", "Dark Money") includes O'Connor-inspired songs by Bruce Springsteen and Lucinda Williams. The priest, who was then an associate professor of English and theology at Loyola University Chicago, felt he should do more with this material, especially knowing that Coffman, his colleague at Loyola and a documentarian, “knew how to do this in spades.”. “As we say in the film, she was writing for people who don’t believe in God. "Flannery" tells the life story of a brilliant, young woman who died before she was forty through the eyes of contemporary writers and artists with cartoons, animations, never-before-seen archival footage and great music. "Anything that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the northern reader, unless it is grotesque, in which case it is going to be called realistic..." Flannery O'Connor, 1958. When Huston finished the film, he declared, "I think I've been had." Previously, the movie, which won the Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film in 2019, has only been shown in film festivals and college campuses. [4][5], Persons appearing in the film include:[6], Directed by Elizabeth Coffman and Mark Bosco, Flannery is the first National Endowment for the Humanities feature documentary to explore the life of acclaimed southern U.S. writer Flannery O'Connor. She also frequently wove together Catholic themes of grace and redemption. The strange holding power of O'Connor's work is best expressed by an anecdote about John Huston, who directed an adaptation of "Wise Blood" in 1979, starring Brad Dourif as Hazel Motes, the wild-eyed itinerant preacher. Contact Anne if you need to update your address. The fact the film touches a nerve follows what the directors wanted to convey. The website's critics consensus reads: "Flannery's filmmaking doesn't live up to its subject's classic work, but it remains a reasonably engaging introduction. Email Carol to submit a calendar event or call (320) 258-7626. Dateline-Saigon profiles the controversial reporting of five Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists -The New York Times' David Halberstam, the Associated Press'... See full summary », More than a decade after leaving the Reverend Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church (the "Moonies"), through a trove of never before seen footage from within the church and extraordinary home... See full summary », For 65 years and counting, Burk Uzzle has created some of the most iconic photographs in American history. Elizabeth Coffman. But it was a labor of love for both of them. A new documentary captures the steely genius and hard-earned faith of the great Southern Gothic writer. Father Bosco had already been keeping tabs on anyone who spoke about O’Connor’s influence in interviews, including several authors, Conan O’Brien and Bruce Springsteen. It’s too bad the documentary didn’t take the same kind of plunge. Filmmakers Elizabeth Coffman and Mark Bosco bring her biography to life with animations, music by Lucinda Williams, Bruce Springsteen, voice by actress Mary Steenburgen and through the eyes of Tommy Lee Jones, Alice Walker, Conan O’Brien, Mary Karr, Tobias Wolff and many more. From big bands to Broadway, radio to recordings and television to the big screen, Kaye Ballard did it all in a career that spanned eight decades. She wasn’t writing for the converts” but for people who need to face what’s in these stories. Note: Measures implemented to curb the spread of the coronavirus have led to the cancellation of public, in-person events in most places around the diocese at this time. She died in in 1964 at age 39 from Lupus complications. Sign up to get the latest Catholic news and stories delivered right to your inbox. Award for Flannery O'Connor film brings new attention to Catholic writer, Catholic press continues mission to reach contemporary film audiences, Catholic publisher reissuing book with release of Jagerstatter biopic. The priest, who was then an associate professor of English and theology at Loyola University Chicago, felt he should do more with this material, especially knowing that Coffman, his colleague at Loyola and a documentarian, “knew how to do this in spades.”.