Filmmaker Q&A: “The Forty-Year-Old Version” Director Radha Blank

Name: Filmmaker Q&A: “The Forty-Year-Old Version” Director Radha Blank
Start: 2020-11-12T17:00:00-08:00
End: 2020-11-12T18:00:00-08:00
Location: SFFILM at Home

Join us for an in-depth Q&A with Radha Blank, director, writer, and star of The Forty-Year-Old Version.

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Description

Join us for an in-depth Q&A with Radha Blank, the director, producer, writer, and star of The Forty-Year-Old Version. Watch the film on Netflix, then tune in for our moderated conversation with the emerging multi-hyphenate.

Radha, a down-on-her-luck New York playwright, is desperate for a breakthrough before 40. But when she foils what seems like her last shot at success, she’s left with no choice but to reinvent herself as rapper RadhaMUSPrime. The Forty-Year-Old Version follows Radha as she vacillates between the worlds of Hip Hop and theater on a quest to find her true voice. Winner of the Directing Prize at The 2020 Sundance Film Festival, The Forty-Year-Old Version is a hilariously candid and deeply personal debut from writer/director Radha Blank. A fresh addition to the New York City slice-of-life canon shot in lush black and white 35mm, Blank’s film is an ode to the unfulfilled, and those whose adversity gives them a one-of-a-kind story to tell.

This event is free and open to the public. Attendees who RSVP will be automatically registered for the online conversation. You will receive an email with the Zoom link that will allow you to join the Q&A. We recommend that you download and install Zoom on your computer or mobile device in advance, and set yourself up with a free account. Attendees will have a chance to participate in the Q&A by sending in questions privately to our moderator.

Learn more about how to use Zoom and attending our virtual events here.

Biographies

Filmmaker Radha Blank

Winner of the 2020 Sundance Institute Vanguard Award and Sundance Film Festival US Dramatic Directing Award, Radha Blank is a director, performer, writer, and proud native New Yorker. A Helen Merrill Award recipient, Blank’s acclaimed play Seed was deemed “fresh, lively…and poetic” by HuffPost. She’s since written for Empire (Fox) and She’s Gotta Have It (Netflix). Blank’s script for The Forty-Year-Old Version was chosen for the 2017 Sundance Directors and Screenwriters Labs and garnered the 2017 Adrienne Shelly Women’s Filmmaker Award and the 2018 Maryland Film Festival Producers Club Award. When not writing for the stage and screen, Blank performs as RadhaMUSprime, whose brand of hip-hop comedy has sold out shows from New York to Norway. Named one of “10 Directors to Watch for 2020” by Variety, Blank’s feature filmmaking directorial debut The Forty-Year-Old Version has been hailed by critics as “funny, thought-provoking, wholly original” and “forever relevant.”