Paul Simon, 1991, photo by: Lisa Lake/Getty Images.
ACADEMY ICONS: SUSAN LACY
PAUL SIMON: BORN AT THE RIGHT TIME
WITH SUSAN LACY AND MIRRA BANK
TICKETS $25 ($22.50 FOR MEMBERS)
In the 1960s, Paul Simon’s moving lyric “Bridge Over Troubled Water” was an anthem for a generation. With Art Garfunkel, he made moving testaments to the times, fusing folk and rock music. In the 1980s, he pioneered a popular cross-cultural music that brought South African musicians into mainstream America. With Steve Martin, Lorne Michaels, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
The screening will be followed by a conversation between Susan Lacy and filmmaker Mirra Bank.
Guild Hall introduces Academy Icons, a new program that spotlights Guild Hall Academy of the Arts members and their work. Inaugurating the series is Susan Lacy, an acclaimed director and producer best known for creating American Masters, the PBS biography series, which began in 1986, profiling artists and visionaries who have helped shape our country’s culture. Her subjects have included James Baldwin, Bob Dylan, Judy Garland, David Geffen, Lena Horne, Joni Mitchell, and hundreds more. American Masters garnered unprecedented awards over the years. Susan earned the series 71 Emmy nominations and 28 wins, including a remarkable ten for Outstanding Non-Fiction Series, in addition to 13 Peabody Awards, three Grammy Awards and a nomination, and an Academy Award and four nominations. Since moving to HBO in 2013, Susan has directed and produced Spielberg, Jane Fonda in Five Acts, Very Ralph, and executive produced The Janes, all for HBO Documentary Films. Among many other distinctions, Susan served as the Governor of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for eight years, is an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences member and a cherished member of Guild Hall’s Academy.
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Susan Lacy
Susan Lacy is an acclaimed director and producer best known for creating American Masters (launched in 1986), the PBS biography series profiling artists and visionaries who have helped shape our country’s culture. Her subjects have included James Baldwin, Bob Dylan, Judy Garland, David Geffen, Lena Horne, Joni Mitchell, and hundreds more. American Masters garnered unprecedented awards over the years. Susan earned the series 71 Emmy nominations and 28 wins, including a remarkable ten for Outstanding Non-Fiction Series, in addition to 13 Peabody Awards, three Grammy Awards and a nomination, and an Academy Award and four nominations. Since moving to HBO in 2013, Susan has directed and produced Spielberg, Jane Fonda in Five Acts, Very Ralph, and executive produced The Janes, all for HBO Documentary Films. Among many other distinctions, Susan was a Governor of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for eight years, is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and a cherished member of Guild Hall’s Academy.
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Mirra Bank
Mirra Bank began her film work with editorial contributions to the Academy Award-winning features, WOODSTOCK; and HARLAN COUNTY, USA; and to GIMME SHELTER, the Maysles’ iconic portrait of Mick Jagger and The Rolling Stones. She created films for the Emmy Award-winning public television series, THE 51ST STATE; and numerous films for PBS. Her feature adaptation of three stories by Grace Paley, ENORMOUS CHANGES (Sundance premiere) starred Kevin Bacon, Ellen Barkin, and David Strathairn. Her Academy Award-shortlisted, LAST DANCE, follows a stormy Holocaust-themed collaboration between Maurice Sendak and Pilobolus. THE ONLY REAL GAME (Netflix premiere) is an unlikely baseball story set in troubled northeast India, narrated by Academy Award-winner, Melissa Leo. NOBODY’S GIRLS, a nonfiction PBS special about women in the Old West, features Cloris Leachman, Esther Rolle, and Tantoo Cardinal. Bank filmed NO FEAR NO FAVOR, about protecting Africa’s wildlife, on the frontlines of the poaching crisis. Bank is a member of The Academy, Documentary Branch; a past President and Advisory Board member of NY Women in Film and Television; on the Advisory Board of Sag Harbor Cinema; and on the Board of Directors of The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures. She is a Lifetime Member of The Actors Studio as a director.
Sponsors
Performing Arts programming is supported in part by funding from The Melville Straus Family Endowment, and Monica and Peter Tessler. Music Programming is supported in part by The Ellen and James S. Marcus Endowment for Musical Programming.
Additional support provided by Friends of the Theater: John and Joan D’Addario, Christine and Bill Campbell, Gabrielle and Gianpaolo de Felice, Galia Meiri-Stawski and Axel Stawski, Hilarie and Mitchell Morgan, Michèle and Steve Pesner, The Schaffner Family Foundation, Lisa Schultz and Ezriel Kornel, Jayne Baron Sherman and Deborah Zum, Leila Straus, and Susi and Peter Wunsch.