Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time

Directors: Robert B. Weide & Don Argott, NR

This dazzling, worthy tribute to Vonnegut is a compelling introduction for the uninitiated. The feature documentary — the first of its kind on Vonnegut — is a deep, immersive dive into the author’s upbringing and his creative output. It spans his childhood in Indianapolis, his experience as a Prisoner of War in World War II, his marriage, family, and divorce, his early careers as a publicist for General Electric and a car salesman, and his long years as a struggling writer, leading to eventual superstardom in 1969 following the publication of his lightning-bolt anti-war novel Slaughterhouse-Five. The film began 39 years ago when young, struggling filmmaker Robert Weide wrote a letter to his literary idol proposing a documentary on Vonnegut’s life and work. In the film, past, present, and future cease to become linear as Weide strives to get an overview of his subject’s life and his own role in it. First and foremost a biography of a beloved American author, but also a filmmaker’s odyssey as he examines the impact of a writer’s legacy on his own life, extending far beyond the printed page. “A gorgeously rendered, unexpectedly moving appraisal of the life and craft of one of the best-loved literary voices of the late 20th century.” —Los Angeles Times

Join us on Friday, Sept. 9 for a screening of Slaughterhouse-Five the 1972 American comedy-drama military science fiction film based on the novel by Kurt Vonnegut.