Watching Walker Percy
By Jeremy Beer for FRONT PORCH REPUBLIChttp://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2011/09/watching-walker-percy/
The author of The Moviegoer would make a fascinating subject for a movie, or at least a documentary.
So reasoned filmmaker Win Riley. His Walker Percy: A Documentary Film, which I have had the privilege to preview, is excellent. It’s a great introduction to Percy for those who haven’t read him, and even better for those who have.
Riley’s documentary will be shown on many PBS affiliates later this fall. But if you are in the Phoenix area, you are cordially invited to come to a special screening of the documentary on Saturday, October 1. Win Riley will be present to take questions from the audience.
The event, cosponsored by Catholic Phoenix, will take place at Xavier College Prep’s Virginia G. Piper Performing Arts Center. Tickets are $10, which you can purchase through Paypal at the above link or at the door. Let me put this part in bold: wine and beer will be complimentary. And while the free booze is sure to draw my fellow papists, this is not a “Catholic” event, and you definitely needn’t be Catholic to enjoy the film (Riley isn’t Catholic) — or to enjoy Percy, for that matter.
A friend of mine once opined, to a group of college students: “There are two groups of people who don’t get Walker Percy: 1. Well-brought-up Catholic boys from large families. 2. All women.”
I’m not sure about that, but come to the screening, and we’ll ask Win Riley what he thinks.
(Any questions or issues buying tickets, please feel free to e-mail me at beerjeremy [at] hotmail.com.)
Comments
Beth
@A friend of mine once opined, to a group of college students: “There are two groups of people who don’t get Walker Percy: 1. Well-brought-up Catholic boys from large families. 2. All women.”
Your friend is wrong. I am a woman and Percy is one of my two favorite authors. The other is Thomas Hardy.
Love In The Ruins is my favorite Percy novel and Lost In The Cosmos has been and reread many times.
Riley’s documentary is indeed worth a wide audience. I hope its airing on PBS stirs a revival of all things Percy.
Peter Daniel Haworth
This sounds excellent. I hope that I can attend.
Wilgus
I reread The Message In The Bottle just about every month. It’s such an important guidebook to the modern world.
Mark
If you are lost in the cosmos, the message in the bottle will help you get your bearings in the ruins.
kath
What Beth said! Here’s another woman who loves Walker Percy — also one of my two faves (the other being Saint Mary Flannery O’Connor).
Joshua
Riley premiered his documentary last semester at Wheaton College, and I had the privilege of seeing it. It’s well worth your time – Percy seems to under-apppreciated, and has a lot of wisdom to offer.
polistra
Percy was the Last of the Prophets. He perfected the visions of Huxley and Bradbury, and saw modern America coming from 40 years away.
Toward the end of Love in the Ruins he shows us Barack and Michelle Obama driving a Toyota Prius.