Continuing Education and Workshops for Professionals

UFVA Member Sumner Jules Glimcher Hosts Meet the Filmmaker with Tom Hayes

By StudentFilmmakers.com
posted Jul 9, 2013, 15:39

Expiration Date: July 17, 2013

You are Cordially Invited to MEET THE FILMMAKER, (Tom Hayes) on Wednesday, July 17, 2013, 6:00 - 8:00PM

At the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences

I375 Broadway (37th Street), Suite #2103

Reception 6:00 – 6:30 Program 6:30 – 8:00

Free of charge to NATAS members ~ $15 for non-members

Produced & Moderated by Sumner Jules Glimcher

“Smiling Through the Apocalypse”

Esquire in the Sixties traces the life of legendary Esquire Magazine Editor Harold Hayes. After more than two decades since his father's passing, Hayes' son Tom takes the viewer on a journey to understand how his father’s magazine became a galvanizing force in American culture, and the voice of an era. The film is a compelling story of challenge, triumph, and defeat, painting an explicit portrait of an era through a man who cultivated an extraordinary group of writers, photographers and artists, providing a vivid context for nothing less than the rebirth of American aesthetics. Interviews: Tom Wolfe, Gay Talese, Robert Benton, Peter Bogdanovich, Nora Ephron, Gore Vidal, George Lois, John Berendt, Lee Eisenberg, Hugh Hefner and more. “Entertaining, skillfully presented, and historically important (showing the l960s/'70s America in ways that personalize the protest moment and the social shift from old values to new) but it also is a cultural film that celebrates the enduring value of the written word well crafted and creatively shaped and penetrating the psyche of a sensitive readership. The film is about excellence in editing and writing, and how the two merge into a magnificent product, which Esquire was during the decade of the 60s/70s when Harold Hayes was the most important editor not only in the magazine business but the communications industry as well. Other editors elsewhere were influenced by Hayes' work and so were young unknown writers (and students who aspire to become writers )--all attracted to the tart essays and the long-form journalism ("The New Journalism") that Hayes encouraged and inspired. The film, as a whole, is an inspirational portrait of Harold Hayes that speaks to us today, decades after his death, to an emerging generation of "New Media" writers and cultural critics who share a skeptical view of power and the desire to confront it and control it for the benefit of society at large.” – Gay Talese

Tom Hayes was born and raised in New York and attended Collegiate School, where his first exposure to filmmaking was in the 6th grade at the school's Middle School Film Club in 1968. A lifelong dream of becoming a feature film director would only be finally realized with this project 44 years later. In the years between, his career included working at the pioneering basic cable network CBS Cable as an Associate Producer, starting a ground-breaking company distributing music videos to movie theaters, and then for the past 23 years, producing television news magazine stories for German Television networks. Since 1991, Tom has produced several hundred current affairs and lifestyle stories for primetime programs on leading German TV networks ProSieben, RTL and Sat 1. Realizing the discourse from his initial goal, "Smiling Through the Apocalypse" became a 4 year journey to finally realize his dream of becoming a feature film director, but more imiportantly to contemplate the greatness of his journalistic roots.

FILMMAKERS STATEMENT Going down paths not permitted as a child, awaken so many feelings of wonderment dormant for so long. Making this film allowed me to appreciate the things my father was so humble at home about accomplishing. Making "Smiling Through the Apocalypse" made me understand that his humility, was in fact just part of his genius. By putting others out front before himself was what made Esquire's voice distinctly his, causing everyone who worked for him to want to do their best work. How could I have know this, or for that matter, anyone, without having looked past the obvious?

Space is limited. You must RSVP to [email protected] to reserve a seat

Please write “Smiling Through” in the Subject Box

Resources:

www.ufva.org