Gene Siskel Film Center to present Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am Aug. 23-29 - 3196 - Gay Lesbian Bi Trans News

As a venue that celebrates all art forms and a public program of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Gene Siskel Film Center mourns the loss of the celebrated Black author and Nobel laureate Toni Morrison and had already scheduled a run of the acclaimed documentary TONI MORRISON: THE PIECES I AM to be presented one week only from Friday, August 23 through Thursday, August 29 at the Gene Siskel Film Center. Directed by longtime friend and noted photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, this documentary portrait of the great African American novelist is as rich and abundant as the extraordinary woman it depicts. At its heart is a meaty interview with Morrison, a warm but formidable presence as she recalls her remarkable life as a book-crazy girl in an Ohio steel town, a schoolteacher raising two children on her own, an influential editor at Random House, and an author who revolutionized writing about race in America en route to winning the Nobel Prize. The film's perspective is broadened by friends and admirers including Oprah Winfrey, Angela Davis, Sonia Sanchez, and Fran Lebowitz, while, in the manner of Morrison's celebrated anthology The Black Book, a steady stream of archival materials and works by notable Black artists ( Jacob Lawrence, Gordon Parks, Kara Walker, et al. ) evokes the immensity of African American experience to which she gave such eloquent shape. http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/toni-morrison-the-pieces-i-am

2019, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, USA, 119 min., DCP digital.

August 23—29

Fri., 8/23 at 2 pm ( Open-captioned ) and 8:15 pm;

Sat., 8/24 at 3 pm and 7:45 pm;

Sun., 8/25 at 5 pm;

Mon., 8/26 at 6 pm ( Open-captioned );

Tue., 8/27 at 8 pm;

Wed., 8/28 at 6 pm;

Thu., 8/29 at 8 pm

All screenings are at the Gene Siskel Film Center of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, located at 164 N. State St.

Tickets to each screening—unless stated otherwise—are $12/general admission, $7/students, $6/Film Center members, and $5/Art Institute of Chicago ( AIC ) staff and School of the Art Institute of Chicago ( SAIC ) faculty, staff, and students. All tickets may be purchased at the Film Center Box Office. Both general admission and Film Center member tickets are available through the Gene Siskel Film Center's website www.siskelfilmcenter.org/content/tickets or through the individual films' weblinks on www.siskelfilmcenter.org . There is a surcharge of $1.50 per ticket. The Film Center and its box office are open 5:00 to 8:30 pm, Monday through Thursday; 1:00 to 8:30 pm, Friday; 2:00 to 8:30 pm, Saturday; and 2:00 to 5:30 pm, Sunday.

—From a press release

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985