Town bloody hall

Author

Chris Hegedus

Call Number

• DVD 305.42 T743 (CEN)

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Edition

Director-approved DVD special edition.

Languages

English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing.

Performers

Jacqueline Ceballos, Jill Johnston, Germaine Greer, Diana Trilling, Norman Mailer.

Publication Information

[Irvington, NY] : Criterion Collection, [2020]

Physical Description

1 videodisc (85 minutes) : sound, color ; 4 3/4 in. + 1 folded sheet (color illustrations ; 19 cm.)

Audience

Not rated.

Summary

On April 30, 1971, a standing-room-only crowd of New York's intellectual elite packed the city's Town Hall theater to see Norman Mailer--fresh from the controversy over his essay "The Prisoner of Sex" and the backlash it received from leaders of the women's movement--tangle with a panel of four prominent female thinkers and activists: Jacqueline Ceballos, Germaine Greer, Jill Johnston, and Diana Trilling. Part intellectual death match, part three-ring circus, the proceedings were captured with crackling, fly-on-the-wall immediacy by the documentary great D. A. Pennebaker and a small crew, with Chris Hegedus later condensing the three-and-a-half-hour affair into this briskly entertaining snapshot of a singular cultural moment. Heady, heated, and hilarious, Town Bloody Hall is a dazzling display of feminist firepower courtesy of some of the most influential figures of the era, with Mailer plainly relishing his role as the pugnacious rabble-rouser and literary lion at the center of it all.

Notes

Title from container.

Originally released as a documentary in 1979.

Special features: New 4K digital transfer, supervised by director Chris Hegedus ; new interview with Hegedus ; audio commentary from 2004 featuring Hegedus and author Germaine Geer ; footage from a 2004 celebration of the film, which brought together participants Greer, Jacqueline Ceballos, and Jill Johnston, and directors Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker ; appearance from 1971 on The Dick Cavett Show by author Norman Mailer, promoting his book The prisoner of sex ; archival interviews with Greer and Mailer.