An Evening with Sarah Kernochan

The Cinematheque welcomes two-time Oscar-winning filmmaker Sarah Kernochan, who will answer audience questions after two of her features. Kernochan won Academy Awards for two documentaries she co-directed: Marjoe (1972) and the short Thoth (2002). She is also a screenwriter (Nine ½ Weeks, Sommersby), novelist, and singer-songwriter, and she is married to Tony Award-winning director James Lapine, a frequent collaborator with Stephen Sondheim. See below for the two programs.

Saturday, March 23, at 5:30pm
IMPROMPTU
UK/France | 1991 | James Lapine
Bohemian, cross-dressing novelist George Sand (Judy Davis) woos frail composer Frédéric Chopin (Hugh Grant) in this fizzy period piece written by Sarah Kernochan and directed by her husband James Lapine. Mandy Patinkin (as Alfred de Musset), Bernadette Peters, Julian Sands (as Franz Liszt), and Emma Thompson co-star. Kernochan will answer questions after the screening. 35mm. 109 min. Special admission $12, members and CIA I.D. holders $9, age 25 & under $8; no passes, twofers, or radio winners. Stay for tonight’s second program for an additional $8.

Saturday, March 23, at 8:30pm
New 35mm Archive Print!
MARJOE
USA | 1972 | Sarah Kernochan, Howard Smith
Winner of the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, this shocking exposé profiles charismatic, twentysomething Southern evangelist Marjoe Gortner. Marjoe began his career as a precocious child preacher but continued holding tent revivals (and milking his followers for money) long after he stopped believing. He comes clean for the cameras. Despite its Oscar, Marjoe was barely released in the American South; the distributor feared it would spark outrage. Co-director Sarah Kernochan will answer questions after the screening. Restored 35mm print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive (Cassie Blake). 88 min. Special admission $12, members and CIA I.D. holders $9, age 25 & under (and those who paid to see Impromptu at 5:30) $8; no passes, twofers, or radio winners.