The Ann Arbor premiere of “A Savage Art: The Life and Cartoons of Pat Oliphant” and a post-screening discussion with the filmmaker and special guests
3 PM | Sunday, November 16
Michigan Theater
Tickets on sale now at Michigan Theater
Watch the trailer
A Premiere Screening and Conversation
A SAVAGE ART: THE LIFE & CARTOONS OF PAT OLIPHANT chronicles the life and career of Australian-born Oliphant, whose tenure as a political cartoonist spanned five decades and ten U.S. Presidents. In 1990, The New York Times called him “the most influential editorial cartoonist now working.” The film explores the history and significance of political cartoons in global democracies, as well as the decline of the profession and the newspaper industry. It also highlights the effects of extreme political partisanship on media and editorial cartooning – illustrating how Oliphant applied his biting wit, sharp critical eye, and masterful drawing skills to take on presidents, popes, and the powers that be.
Beginning in 1990, Oliphant made annual visits to Wallace House, where he met with journalism fellows as a seminar speaker. During his sessions, he drew sketches of American political figures ranging from Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama; many of these original works hang in Wallace House today.
Following the film, director Bill Banowsky will be joined by journalist Charles Eisendrath and political cartoonist Mike Thompson for a conversation moderated by Lynette Clemetson, director of Wallace House Center for Journalists.
About the panel
Bill Banowsky is an entrepreneur and filmmaker who began his career as an attorney and later served as general counsel to several publicly traded media companies. He served as CEO of Landmark Theaters, which at the time was the largest chain of art-house cinemas in the USA. He has started several companies, including Magnolia Pictures, Violet Crown Cinemas, Nuckolls Brewing Co., and Sky Railway. He was Executive Producer of Alex Gibney’s 2010 film about corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff, “Casino Jack and the United States of Money,” and the producer of “Starving the Beast,” a film about the systemic defunding of public higher education in the USA. “A Savage Art” is Banowsky’s directorial debut.
Charles R. Eisendrath is a journalist, inventor and author. He served as director of the Knight-Wallace Fellowships for Journalists at the University of Michigan from 1986 to 2016, shaping three decades of transformative professional development for mid-career journalists. Eisendrath is also the founding director of the Livingston Awards, which, for more than forty years, have recognized outstanding young journalists and fostered the next generation of newsroom leaders. Before his leadership at Wallace House, Eisendrath was a distinguished correspondent for TIME magazine, reporting from Washington, London, and Paris, and later serving as bureau chief in Buenos Aires. He is the author of the memoir, “Downstream from Here: A Foreign Correspondent Discovers Home.
Mike Thompson, a four-time Pulitzer finalist, is the former staff editorial cartoonist/visual journalist for USA Today, The Detroit Free Press and the Minnesota Star Tribune. He is a past recipient of the Robert F. Kennedy Award, the Overseas Press Club Award, the National Press Foundation Award, the National Headliner Award, the Scripps Howard national award, the Women in Communications Clarion Award and is a two-time winner of the Society of Professional Journalists national Sigma Delta Chi award. His work was syndicated globally to more than 200 newspapers.
About the moderator
Lynette Clemetson is the Charles R. Eisendrath Director of Wallace House, home of the Knight-Wallace Fellowships for Journalists and the Livingston Awards for Young Journalists at the University of Michigan. She is a 2010 Knight-Wallace alum and came to the university from NPR where she was Senior Director of Strategy and Content Initiatives. As a reporter, she was a Washington-based correspondent for The New York Times and Newsweek, writing about politics, social issues and demographic change. Prior to her domestic correspondent work, she was an international correspondent for Newsweek based in Hong Kong, where she covered the former British colony’s return to Chinese rule in 1997. She transitioned into digital strategy and leadership in 2008 as the founding managing editor of TheRoot.com, a website launched by The Washington Post Company in collaboration with Henry Louis Gates Jr. She is also the former Director of Content Strategy at the Pew Center on the States.