Alumni Book Talk: Philip Gefter and "Cocktails with George and Martha"

Watch a recording of a reading by award-winning author Philip Gefter (Fine Arts, 1973) from his new book "Cocktails with George and Martha: Movies, Marriage, and the Making of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" followed by a conversation with Kara Hearn, Chair of Pratt’s Film/Video Department. The book reveals the behind-the scenes story of a provocative play, the groundbreaking film it became, and how two iconic stars changed the image of marriage forever.

About the Speakers

Philip Gefter
Philip Gefter is the author of “Cocktails with George and Martha: Movies, Marriage and the Making of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” (Bloomsbury); two biographies: “What Becomes a Legend Most: The Biography of Richard Avedon,” (Harper) and “Wagstaff: Before and After Mapplethorpe,” (Liveright) which received the 2014 Marfield Prize for national arts writing; and a collection of essays, “Photography After Frank” (Aperture). He was an editor at The New York Times for over fifteen years and wrote about photography for the paper. He was the photography critic for the Daily Beast in its early years and contributes frequently to The New Yorker: Photobooth and Aperture, the quarterly of photography. He produced the award-winning documentary, “Bill Cunningham New York.” He resides in New York City.

Kara Hearn
Kara Hearn (b. 1973, Oklahoma) is an interdisciplinary performance-based video artist and the chair of the Film/Video Department at Pratt Institute. Her work has been screened, exhibited, and performed at MoMA, SFMOMA, The Bluecoat Gallery, Arquipélago Contemporary Art Center, DiverseWorks, New Orleans Museum of Art, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, White Columns, Berkeley Art Museum, and Walker Art Center. Her work was featured in the book Double Act: Art and Comedy and has been selected twice as a “critic’s pick” on Artforum.com. Hearn is a member of the video cooperative Temp.Files and has completed residencies at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston and at Recess, EFA Project Space, and Wassaic Project in New York. She received an MFA from UC, Berkeley, an MA from San Francisco State and a BA from UC, Santa Cruz.