Stanford Summer Theater Festival: The Films of Sam Shepard

Annenberg Auditorium, Cummings Art Building

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Ongoing every week from July 9, 2012 through August 6, 2012. 7:00 PM.

This summer’s film series begins with Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven, starring Sam Shepard in one of his most compelling screen performances, along with Richard Gere and Brooke Adams. The second film, Thunderheart by Michael Apted, features Shepard as a tough FBI agent, whose complicated relationship with power and corruption unfolds on the Sioux reservation (based on the incident at Wounded Knee in 1973). With Shepard in the leading role, Volker Schlöndorff’s Voyager presents a deeply affecting screen adaptation of Max Frisch’s novel Homo Faber (Frisch was the subject of SST’s 2002 Festival, which included a production of his Biedermann and the Firebugs). Shepard wrote the screenplay and stars in Wim Wenders’ 2005 film Don’t Come Knocking, a delightful look at some of the myths behind the American western. The film series concludes with Robert Altman’s Fool for Love, starring Shepard (along with Kim Basinger, Randy Quaid, and Harry Dean Stanton), who adapted his prize-winning play of the same title.

Audience members will receive a filmography describing each film. A discussion led by Stanford faculty or the SST company member follows each screening.