September 19, 2003

The Hours Film To Be Screened As Preview Event To Lecture By Michael Cunningham

The Oscar-winning film The Hours will be screened at Boise State University on Sept. 29 and 30 as part of events leading up to a free lecture on Oct. 9 by Michael Cunningham, who wrote the Pulitzer-prize winning novel on which the film was based. The Hours will be shown at 7 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 29, in the Special Events Center. Following the screening, a discussion of the issues raised in the film will be presented by Melissa Wintrow, coordinator of the Women's Center, theatre arts professor Leslie Durham and social work professor Robin Allen. On Tuesday, Sept. 30, The Hours will be shown at 7 p.m. in the Student Union Jordan Ballroom. This screening will not be followed by a discussion. Admission for either screening is $1.50 general and $1 for Boise State students, faculty and staff. The screenings are presented by the Women's Center, the Distinguished Lecture Series and the Student Programs Board. The Hours stars Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore. It was nominated for nine 2003 Academy Awards and won best actress for Kidman.  The film also received a Golden Globe for best motion picture. Cunninngham, who received widespread critical acclaim for his novel The Hours, will speak at 7 p.m. on Oct. 9 in the Student Union Jordan Ballroom  as part of the university's Distinguished Lecture Series. Cunningham's topic is "Wrestling With a Genius: My Life and Virginia Woolf's." The lecture is free and the public is invited. "We're delighted to be able to present these screenings and a discussion as a preview to Michael Cunningham's lecture on Oct. 9," said Chris Loucks, an economics professor who is a member of the Distinguished Lecture Series Committee. "These preview events are a great way for our lecture audience to gain a deeper perspective of Cunningham's novel and the issues he explores." Cunningham is also the author of the critically acclaimed Flesh and Blood and A Home at the End of the World. A theater adaptation of Flesh and Blood opened off Broadway last spring. A film version of A Home at the End of the World with Sissy Spacek and Colin Farrell is scheduled for a 2004 release. Cunningham, who lives in New York City, is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and a Michener Fellowship from the University of Iowa. His work has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Redbook, Esquire, The Paris Review and many other publications. Cunningham received a bachelor's degree in English literature from Stanford University and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Iowa. The student-funded Distinguished Lecture Series brings to campus speakers who have had a significant impact in politics, the arts or the sciences. The most recent speaker was former president of Poland and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Lech Walesa. On April 14, 2004, the series presents Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson, considered one of the world's greatest scientists and often called "the father of biodiversity." Wilson has written 20 books, won two Pulitzer prizes, and discovered hundreds of new living species. For more information about the Distinguished Lecture Series, go to http://news.boisestate.edu/dls/. -30- Contact Chris Loucks Distinguished Lecture Series and economics professor 426-1468 Media contact Janelle Brown communications and marketing 208 426-1790