I neglected to send this yesterday because I was having one of my self-imposed film festival days (aka watching a giant pile of screeners), but I’m here now, with a couple of things worth doing.
First, one from me: I’ll be the featured guest for Image Journal’s SummerStage series this Friday night, June 19, at 8pm ET. Here is where you can register for the (free) event. And here is the description we cooked up:
Critics know what moviegoers ought to see well before trailers hit the web, and they know the serendipitous feeling of a film being released at exactly the right time. Turn up to this conversation with Vox film critic Alissa Wilkinson, for recommendations of recent movies that speak to our cultural moment: "summers of riots after winters of delay" (MLK Jr.), in the midst of a pandemic, while the movie business reinvents itself for viewers at home.
Image hosts an event at 3pm ET every Tuesday and 8pm ET every Friday, so it’s worth checking out the entire calendar. (Today’s Tuesday afternoon event is a “visit” to the studio of artist Lanecia Tinsley.)
On Thursday, at 8pm ET, my good friend Tara Isabella Burton is having a virtual book launch “at” the Strand Bookstore for her new book Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World, which is out today. She’ll be in conversation with New York Times columnist Ross Douthat. You can register here and buy the book here.
And tonight (Tuesday) at 8pm ET, Valarie Kaur and Chris Jackson will be in conversation; here’s the description:
Join Valarie Kaur, civil rights lawyer, award-winning filmmaker, innovator, and founder of The Revolutionary Love Project, in conversation with One World editor-in-chief Chris Jackson, as they explore what it takes to reimagine—and then build—a more just and loving world, and how reimagining institutions and systems in a time of social upheaval can help us orient to this historical moment. Valarie will also read from her book See No Stranger, and readers can ask questions during the live Q&A.
It’s free, but you need to register.