Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir

Composer
KATHRYN BOSTIC

Author & Subject of Documentary
AMY TAN

MODERATED BY JON BURLINGAME (Variety)

Screening Link available upon Registration

YouTube Live Stream Q&A:
Thursday, August 12, 2:00PM PT

Writer Amy Tan’s hit debut novel, The Joy Luck Club (1989), catapulted her to commercial and critical success, spending over 40 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list. With the 1993 blockbuster film adaption that followed, which was selected for the National Film Registry in 2020, as well as additional bestselling novels, librettos, short stories, and memoirs, Tan firmly established herself as one of the most prominent and respected literary voices working today. Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir is an intimate portrait of the groundbreaking author that interweaves archival imagery, including home movies and personal photographs, animation, and original interviews, to tell the inspiring story of Tan’s life and career. Not Rated | 101min

Kathryn Bostic is an Emmy nominated and award-winning composer and artist. In addition to her composing credits on critically acclaimed films, TV, theater, and symphony concert music, she is the recipient of numerous fellowships and other accolades. Bostic created the score for the award-winning film Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am, with her original song “High Above the Water” Oscar Shortlisted in 2020. Her score garnered her a News & Documentary Emmy nomination and won ‘Outstanding Original Score for an Independent Film’ at the Society of Composers and Lyricists’ inaugural awards. In 2016 she became the first female African-American composer to become a member of the Music Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. Kathryn Bostic’s diverse composing credits for features and documentaries include Clemency, Black Art: In the Absence of Light, Dear White People, Middle of Nowhere, and Rita Moreno – Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for it. For the 2021 Primetime Emmy Awards, Bostic is nominated for the PBS American Masters documentary Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir, the final film directed by the late director James Redford, for ‘Outstanding Music Composition For A Documentary Series Or Special’. American Masters is nominated for ‘Outstanding Documentary Series or Special’.

Bostic recently created the original music for the 2021 Television series Delilah on OWN network. Bostic has written for Broadway, most notably collaborating with the iconic playwright August Wilson on Gem of the Ocean and several productions of his last play Radio Golf. Prominent orchestras have taken note of Kathryn Bostic’s talents, earning her commissions to create concert works for The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Bangor Symphony Orchestra, and Chicago Sinfonietta, where she was recently chosen as their first artist in residence.

Born in the U.S. to immigrant parents from China, Amy Tan rejected her mother’s expectations that she become a doctor and concert pianist. She chose to write fiction instead. Her novels are The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God’s Wife, The Hundred Secret Senses, The Bonesetter’s Daughter, Saving Fish from Drowning, and Valley of Amazement, all New York Times bestsellers. She is the author of two memoirs, The Opposite of Fate and Where the Past Begins; two children’s books, The Moon Lady and Sagwa, The Chinese Siamese Cat; and numerous articles for magazines. Ms. Tan served as co-producer and co-screenwriter for the film adaptation of The Joy Luck Club and was a creative consultant for Sagwa, the Emmy-nominated PBS television series for children. She wrote the libretto for the opera based on her novel The Bonesetter’s Daughter. With music composed by Stewart Wallace, the opera had its world premiere in 2008 at the San Francisco Opera. Tan is the subject of the American Masters documentary Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir which premiered at Sundance in 2021. In addition, she is an instructor of a MasterClass on Fiction, Memory, and Imagination.

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FREE for current SCL members (click HERE to check membership status).

Attendees will be emailed a Screening Link upon Registration and a Q&A YouTube Live Stream link on Thursday, August 12, 10 minutes before Q&A start.

Attendees can ask questions on YouTube chat, and the SCL Host will pass them on to the Moderator. The SCL Member Code of Conduct applies to online Q&As.

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