''Flannery'' is a 2019 documentary film from Long Distance Productions about American novelist Flannery O'Connor. The film had its world premiere in October 2019 at the opening night of the

Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival The Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival is a documentary film festivals held annually in Hot Springs, Arkansas. The festival began in 1991, with a screening of ten Academy Award-nominated documentaries. Overview The festival screens 100 docume ...

, as well as additional screenings at the New Orleans Film Festival and

Austin Film Festival Austin Film Festival (AFF), founded in 1994, is an organization in Austin, Texas, that focuses on writers’ creative contributions to film. Initially, AFF was called the Austin Heart of Film Screenwriters Conference and functioned to launch the ...

Cast

Persons appearing in the film include: *

Mary Steenburgen Mary Nell Steenburgen (; born February 8, 1953) is an American actress, comedian, singer, and songwriter. After studying at New York's Neighborhood Playhouse in the 1970s, she made her professional acting debut in 1978 Western comedy film ''Goin' ...

- Narrator *

Hilton Als Hilton Als (born 1960) is an American writer and theater critic. He is a teaching professor at the University of California, Berkeley, an associate professor of writing at Columbia University and a staff writer and theater critic for ''The New Yor ...

- Self * Sally Fitzgerald - Self * Michael Fitzgerald - Self *

Robert Giroux Robert Giroux (April 8, 1914 – September 5, 2008) was an American book editor and publisher. Starting his editing career with Harcourt, Brace & Co., he was hired away to work for Roger W. Straus, Jr. at Farrar & Straus in 1955, where he becam ...

- Self * Mary Gordon - Self * Mary Karr - Self *

Tommy Lee Jones Tommy Lee Jones (born September 15, 1946) is an American actor and film director. He has received four Academy Award nominations, winning Best Supporting Actor for his performance as U.S. Marshal Samuel Gerard in the 1993 thriller film '' The ...

- Self * Alice McDermott - Self *

Conan O'Brien Conan Christopher O'Brien (born April 18, 1963) is an American television host, comedian, writer, and producer. He is best known for having hosted late-night talk shows for almost 28 years, beginning with ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' (19 ...

- Self * Alice Walker - Self * Tobias Wolff - Self

Production

Directed by Elizabeth Coffman and Mark Bosco, ''Flannery'' is the first

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

feature documentary to explore the life of acclaimed southern U.S. writer Flannery O'Connor. Coffman is a documentary filmmaker, scholar and professor at

Loyola University Chicago Loyola University Chicago (Loyola or LUC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1870 by the Society of Jesus, Loyola is one of the largest Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Cathol ...

. She owns and directs films with Ted Hardin of Long Distance Productions. Bosco is a Jesuit priest, O'Connor scholar and Vice President for Mission and Ministry at

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

. The score for the film, by award-winning composer

Miriam Cutler Miriam Cutler is an American composer best known for her documentary film work. Life and career Cutler is a Los Angeles-based film composer, scoring and performing music for over 20 years. She began her musical career as songwriter and clarinet ...

("RBG", "Dark Money") includes O'Connor-inspired songs by

Bruce Springsteen Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American singer and songwriter. He has released 21 studio albums, most of which feature his backing band, the E Street Band. Originally from the Jersey Shore, he is an originat ...

and Lucinda Williams. With animations, letters, never-before-seen photographs and archival footage, soul-raising music and insights from top American writers, actors and critics, the film illustrates the life of the brilliant and reclusive writer. A soundtrack album was released by Perseverance Records in 2021. Executive producers include Bob Hercules, Christopher O’Hare and Stefan Sonnenfeld.

Release

''Flannery'' had its world premiere in October 2019 at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival. The film won the first Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film. Filmmaker

Ken Burns Kenneth Lauren Burns (born July 29, 1953) is an American filmmaker known for his documentary film, documentary films and television series, many of which chronicle United States, American History of the United States, history and Culture of the ...

, who chairs his namesake award, said in regard to the film, "''Flannery'' is an extraordinary documentary that allows us to follow the creative process of one of our country’s greatest writers." In October 2019, it was awarded the prize for best Documentary Feature at the Austin Film Festival. ''Flannery'' received generally positive reviews from critics. , of the 22 compiled by

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

are positive, with an average rating of . The website's critics consensus reads: "''Flannery''s filmmaking doesn't live up to its subject's classic work, but it remains a reasonably engaging introduction."

References

External links

Official site
*{{imdbtitle, 8101954
Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film
2019 films 2019 documentary films