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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…
Jeremy Beer
Jeremy Beer
September 10, 2011

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.)

 

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A stack of three Local Culture journals and the book 'Localism in the Mass Age'
Jeremy Beer

Jeremy Beer

Jeremy Beer is a philanthropic consultant. He lives with his wife, Kara, in the Willo neighborhood of her hometown: Phoenix, Arizona. Although he likes Arizona and the land west of the one hundredth meridian generally, Jeremy is from Kosciusko County, Indiana, and considers himself a Hoosier patriot. He believes that Booth Tarkington was one of our greatest novelists, that Jean Shepherd was one of our greatest humorists, that Billy Sunday was our one of our greatest (and speediest) orators, and that Larry Bird is without a doubt our greatest living American.

Jeremy obtained his doctorate in psychology from the University of Texas at Austin. From 2000 to 2008 he worked at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute in Wilmington, Delaware, serving finally as vice president of publications and editor in chief of ISI Books. He serves on the boards of Front Porch Republic, Inc., Mars Hill Audio, and Catholic Phoenix. A more complete and much more professional bio can be found here.

See books written and recommended by Jeremy Beer.

8 comments

  • polistra
    14 years ago

    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.

  • Joshua
    14 years ago

    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.

  • kath
    14 years ago

    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).

  • Mark
    14 years ago

    If you are lost in the cosmos, the message in the bottle will help you get your bearings in the ruins.

  • Wilgus
    14 years ago

    I reread The Message In The Bottle just about every month. It’s such an important guidebook to the modern world.

  • Peter Daniel Haworth
    14 years ago

    This sounds excellent. I hope that I can attend.

  • Beth
    14 years ago

    @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.

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