HOW TO COME ALIVE with Norman Mailer explores the rollercoaster life of America’s most controversial and bestselling author of the 20th Century, Norman Mailer. Propelled by his tremendous ego and contrarian spirit, Mailer’s ceaseless visibility in the public eye lasted 6 decades, during which he had 6 tumultuous marriages, 9 beloved children, 11 bestsellers, 3 arrests, and 2 Pulitzer Prizes. Prophet, hedonist, violent criminal, literary outlaw, and social provocateur, Mailer’s ideas about love, anger, fear, and courage cut to the core of human nature, are more relevant than ever today, and point to a prescription for waking ourselves up, shaking free of society’s expectations, and coming alive as a people.

The first project with full access to Mailer’s family and their archive, the film unearths a treasure trove of intimate and never-before-seen footage, outtakes, audio recordings, and interviews from throughout his life. Mailer lays himself bare, foibles and all. As a lover, fighter, rabble-rouser, and perhaps the last true American public intellectual, he seeks most of all to become a bolder, better human being and encourages us to do the same — to think adventurously, speak fearlessly, and care less about the response… or risk a doomed future.

ONE SHOW ONLY • WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4 @ 8PM IN AVALON 1

Join us for a special Q&A following the screening with Mailer’s eldest son and film producer Michael Mailer, moderated by film critic David Sterritt.

Michael Mailer has been directing, producing and writing extensively in the independent film world since graduating Harvard University. He established Michael Mailer Films in 2004 to focus on both independent, character-driven films and larger, concept-oriented pictures. Michael is best known for Heart of Champions (2021), Blind (2016), Black & White (1999), Two Girls and a Guy (1997), The Ledge (2011), and Empire (2002).

David Sterritt is a film critic, author, teacher and scholar. He is most notable for his work on Alfred Hitchcock and Jean-Luc Godard, and his many years as the Film Critic for The Christian Science Monitor, where, from 1968 until his retirement in 2005, he championed avant-garde cinema, theater, and music. He has a PhD in Cinema Studies from New York University and was, until 2105, chair of the National Society of Film Critics for ten years. He is now a film professor at the Maryland Institute College of Art and professor emeritus of theater and film at Long Island University.