Screening of Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold and Q&A with Director Griffin Dunne

Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold is a documentary about Joan Didion; Made with Joan, using Joan’s words.

While her writing is fierce and exposed, Joan herself is an incredibly private person. Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold traces the arc of Joan’s life through her own writings, and in her own voice. Our film will tell Joan’s story through passages she has chosen (and will read aloud) from her work, as her friends, family, colleagues and critics share their accounts of her remarkable life and writing.

Patti Smith, Vanessa Redgrave, Allison Janney, Graydon Carter, Robert Silvers, and Bret Easton Ellis are just a few of the people interviewed. The film honors Joan’s language, to visualize the stories she tells, to put her words to picture. Joan’s obsessive memory, and her sharp and unsettling observations, are brought to life, using music and images-rare and atmospheric film and stills that encapsulate her words. The film also uses rare archival from Joan’s personal life and family history.

In attendance for Q&A after the screening, director Griffin Dunne is an accomplished actor, producer, and director. Griffin made his foray into directing with the short film Duke of Groove, for which he received an Academy Award nomination. His feature film directorial debut was Addicted to Love; followed by Practical Magic, Fierce People, and The Accidental Husband. He is also a frequent director for The Good Wife. As an actor he is best known for After Hours, directed by Martin Scorsese, which Griffin also produced, An American Werewolf in London, directed by John Landis, and Johnny Dangerously with Michael Keaton.