Professor's film to air this month on PBS

James Madison University media arts and design Professor Tom O’Connor’s 90-minute documentary film on British author Graham Greene will air nationally on PBS stations this month. 

Member station WVPT in Harrisonburg will show “Dangerous Edge: A Life of Graham Greene” beginning Friday, March 29, at 10:30 p.m.

“Dangerous Edge” is the first American-produced documentary on Greene, a manic-depressive whose literary career spanned seven decades. Greene wrote in nearly every conceivable form, including novels (“The Quiet American,” “The End of the Affair”), travel books, plays, screenplays and essays. He was also a British spy during World War II and later became one of the world’s most respected foreign correspondents, covering events such as Kenya’s Mau Mau Rebellion and the French Indochina War. The film uses the author’s own words from his books and recordings, as well as photographs and clips from his many films, to reveal the fascinating life of one of the great writers of the 20th century.

British actor Sir Derek Jacobi, who appeared in three feature films adapted from Greene’s books, serves as narrator, and actor Bill Nighy (“Love Actually,” “Pirate Radio”) provides the voice of the author. The documentary also includes interviews with Greene scholars as well as fellow writers, critics and spies.

O’Connor and his crew, which included Ken Burns cinematographer Allen Moore, shot on location in London, Washington, New York, Los Angeles, Vienna and Geneva, Switzerland, Greene’s final resting place.

JMU’s School of Media Arts and Design will host a free screening of “Dangerous Edge: A Life of Graham Greene” at Court Square Theater in downtown Harrisonburg at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 24.

For more information, visit https://www.jmu.edu/news/2012/07/19-graham-greene-documentary.shtml or https://www.jmu.edu/smad/about-smad/our-people/oconnor-tom.shtml.

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March 22, 2013