New York State Writers Institute - Classic Film Series

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Town Bloody Hall

September 23, 1998 (Wednesday) at 4:00 p.m. (NOTE START TIME)

Page Hall, 135 Western Avenue
(Free and Open to the Public)

(American, 1979, 88 minutes, color, 16 mm)
Directed by D. A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus

Norman Mailer versus Germaine Greer in the Great Debate on Women's Liberation. On the evening of April 20, 1971, a SRO audience of local literati and feminists packed New York City's Town Hall to watch Norman Mailer, who had just published The Prisoner of Sex, participate in a panel discussion on women's liberation with Jill Johnson, journalist and lesbian spokewoman; Diana Trilling, literary critic, Jacqueline Ceballos, National Organization for Women President; and Germaine Greer, author of The Female Eunuch. The dialogue lasted for hours, extending to audience members such as Betty Friedan, Susan Sontag, and Cynthia Ozick. The event proved to be true theater--one of the most stimulating and entertaining acts to date in the continuing comedy/drama about the war between the sexes.