Erin Byrne, Gonzague Pichelin, and Benjamin Sutherland will discuss and present two films. Thursday, March 26 at 20:00, La Caféothèque, 52 rue de l’Hôtel de Ville, Paris 75004. This is a free event – please purchase a drink.
The Storykeeper
In June of 1944 during the last days of the German Occupation of Paris, 7-year-old René Psarolis is playing on his street, rue de la Chapelle, when A B-17G soars overhead and crashes nearby. The explosion reverberates inside René. Through the years, he is haunted by questions: What happened? Who was in that plane? Did they all die or did some survive? He seeks answers, and finally pieces the story together in a way that changes the lives of two survivors and the families of the fallen airmen. Filmmaker Rogeir Van Beeck Calkoen, writer Erin Byrne. Winner of an Accolade Award, Best Documentary Short at Geneva Film Festival and Universe Multicultural Festival. Erin will also read from “Storykeepers”, winner of a bronze Solas Award for Travel Story of the Year, from The Best Travel Writing, Volume 10.
Portrait of a Bookstore as an Old Man
In 1951, George Whitman opened a bookshop-commune in Paris. George, 92 at the time of filming, runs his “den of anarchists disguised as a bookstore,” offering free, dirty beds to poor literati, cutting his hair with a candle flame and gluing the carpet with pancake batter. More than 40,000 poets, travelers and political activists have stayed at Shakespeare and Company, writing or stealing books, throwing parties and making soup or love while living with George’s generosity and fits of anger. Illustrious guests include Henry Miller, Anaïs Nin, Jacques Prévert, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, Gregory Corso, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, James Baldwin and Richard Wright. Welcome to the makeshift utopia of the last member of the Beat Generation. Filmmakers Benjamin Sutherland and Gonzague Pichelin.