Film buffs will have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity this weekend to hear Robert Redford, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward discuss their collaboration on the film, All the President's Men.
The conversation will take place at the BAM Rose Cinema 3 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music as part of a 16-film tribute to Redford created by BAMcinematek, the repertory film program. The tribute, which began last Tuesday and runs through September 16, celebrates Redford's 50-year career as an actor, Academy-award winning director, champion of independent cinema, and environmental and social-change activist.
On Saturday evening, September 12, BAM will screen All the President's Men, which tells how Woodward and Bernstein, two reporters for The Washington Post, stumbled on the biggest political scandal of the 1970's and brought down the administration of President Richard M. Nixon. Woodward and Bernstein were portrayed by Redford and Dustin Hoffman.
Following the screening, Woodward, Bernstein and Redford, who rarely appears in public, will participate in a Q & A with Brian Lehrer, the WNYC talk show host. Redford is expected to discuss his key, behind-the-scenes role in the making of the film; his relationship with Woodward and Bernstein; and the film's historical significance in the post-Watergate era.
Tickets to the film screening and a simulcast of the Redford, Woodward and Bernstein Q & A in BAM Rose Cinema 4 are still available, through BAM's Web site. BAM is also taping the Q & A, but has not yet determined how it will be used.
On Sunday afternoon, September 13, BAM Rose Cinemas will simultaneously screen four of Redford's films, Out of Africa, The Natural, The Electric Horseman, and The Way We Were. These will be followed by an interview of Redford by Carrie Rickey, film critic of The Philadelphia Inquirer, in which he will more broadly discuss his career as an actor, director and activist. The Sundance Channel will later broadcast clips of the interview. Tickets to this event are sold out.
The Redford tribute is an outgrowth of BAM's collaboration, between 2006 and 2008, with the Sundance Institute on a series of screenings and programs called "The Sundance Institute at BAM." Founded by Redford in 1981, the institute runs development programs for independent film and theater artists.
Karen Brooks Hopkins, president of BAM, said Redford worked closely with BAM to select the 16 films featured in its tribute and to plan the accompanying programs. She also said it was his idea to invite Woodward and Bernstein to join him in a conversation about All the President's Men.
According to Hopkins, the BAM tribute is the first time Redford's career has been the focus of such a wide-ranging retrospective.
"I think the career of Bob Redford and the magnitude of his work deserves significant recognition. And it will give young audiences the chance to see his films on the big screen and talk about his political work," she added.