13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

From director Michael Bay, "13 Hours:  The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi" is the gripping true story of six elite ex-military operators assigned to protect the CIA who fought back against overwhelming odds when terrorists attacked a U.S. diplomatic compound on September 11, 2012.  When everything went wrong, six men had the courage to do what was right.  Based on the nonfiction book "13 Hours" by New York Times bestselling author Mitchell Zuckoff and Members of the Annex Security Team.

SYMPOSIUM PARTICIPANTS:
Author Mitchell Zuckoff is the Sumner M. Redstone Professor of Narrative Studies at Boston University and the author of seven nonfiction books. His most recent book, "13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi," was a No. 1 New York Times bestseller. His two previous books, "Frozen in Time" and "Lost in Shangri-La," also were New York Times bestsellers. Lost In Shangri-La received the Winship/PEN Award for Nonfiction. As an investigative reporter for The Boston Globe, Zuckoff was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He received the American Society of Newspaper Editors' Distinguished Writing Award, the Livingston Award for International Reporting, and the Associated Press Managing Editors' Award, among other national honors. He lives outside Boston with his family.

Screenwriter Chuck Hogan is the New York Times bestselling author of five novels, as well as a screenwriter and television producer. His best-known novel "The Town" was awarded the Hammett Prize for "literary excellence in the field of crime writing," and was adapted into the hit feature film directed by Ben Affleck. His adaptation of 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, directed by Michael Bay, was released in January 2016. He is the co-creator and executive producer, with Oscar-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, of The Strain, soon to begin its third broadcast season on FX Networks. His non-fiction has appeared in The New York Times, Esquire, and ESPN The Magazine, and his short fiction has twice been anthologized in "The Best American Mystery Stories." He lives near Boston with his family.

ARRIVAL | STORIES OF YOUR LIFE AND OTHERS

When mysterious spacecraft touch down across the globe, an elite team - led by expert linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams) - is brought together to investigate.  As mankind teeters on the verge of global war, Banks and the team race against time for answers - and to find them, she will take a chance that could threaten her life, and quite possibly humanity.

SYMPOSIUM PARTICIPANTS:
Eric Heisserer is a screenwriter and author. In 2016, he wrote and produced hit feature Lights Out at New Line based on the short film by David F. Sandberg. He made his directorial debut in 2013 with the film Hours, which he also wrote.  Also in the works is the feature film Bird Box.  Heisserer is at work rewriting Bloodshot, the first of Sony's launch of Valiant Comics to screen, developing Harbinger, another Valiant Comic for Sony/Neal Moritz, and Understand at Fox with 21 Laps, based on a short story by Ted Chiang.  Heisserer's books include the recent "150 Screenwriting Challenges" and has written several short stories for the anthology site Popcorn Fiction.  His previous feature film work also includes Final Destination 5, The Thing (2011) and the Nightmare on Elm Street remake.  Heisserer grew up in Oklahoma.  A self-described autodidact, Heisserer began his writing career in the mid-1990s in the tabletop game market, but he broke in as a screenwriter with an online epistolary story called "The Dionaea House."

Ted Chiang was born in Port Jefferson, New York, and holds a degree in computer science. In 1989 he attended the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop. His fiction has won four Hugo, four Nebula, and four Locus Awards, and he is the recipient of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award. Stories of Your Life and Others has been translated into twenty-one languages. He lives near Seattle, Washington.

Septembers of Shiraz

A drama that brings to life a chapter of recent history, comprehended by too few in the West, Septembers of Shiraz tells the story of law-abiding citizens whose lives are turned upside down in the wake of the Iranian Revolution of '79.  One morning, when someone slanders Tehran jeweler Isaac Amin, despite having done nothing wrong, he is arrested. Surrounded by the Kafkaesque anti-logic of post-Revolution Iran, Isaac is accused - apropos of nothing but his affluence and his Jewishness - of spying for Israel. He is taken to a secret prison and subjected to agonizing interrogations, while his wife, Farnaz, is left to make sense of what has happened, to somehow secure Isaac's release, and to get their family away from this new climate of fear and repression.  In the process, the family itself must reckon with their own complacency under the rule of the former Shah, whose oppressive policies ultimately inspired the upheaval. 

SYMPOSIUM PARTICIPANTS:
Producer Hanna Weg has made her reputation as a writer based on complex characters and dialogue that are richly layered and authentic, and which have attracted the attention of Hollywood's finest talent, including Richard Gere, Cate Blanchett, Dustin Hoffman, Jodie Foster, Kenneth Branagh, Salma Hayek, Brit Marling and such acclaimed directors as Antoine Fuqua and Peter Landesman.  Currently, Weg has two scripts slated for production in 2017:  THE COURIER, her original script that she is producing with Alison Owen and Tobias Weymar: Charlotte Seiling will direct; and a film  about the life of Joseph Merrick - otherwise known as "The Elephant Man" --  which she wrote for director David Dobkin to direct.  Finally, Weg will debut as a director of GARDEN OF LAST DAYS, based on her adaptation of the novel by André Dubus III.

THE LATE BLOOMER | MAN MADE: A Memoir of My Body

Dr. Pete Newmans (Johnny Simmons) is a successful sex therapist whose practice is devoted to helping people re-channel their sexual impulses. When his doctors discover a pituitary tumor that has delayed his onset of puberty for 15 years, Pete undergoes what would normally be years of puberty in a matter of weeks. Mood swings, voice changes, acne and, of course, near uncontrollable erections greet Pete as he tries to navigate life as both a horny 15 year-old kid and a 30 year-old desperate to be a complete man and get the girl of his dreams.

SYMPOSIUM PARTICIPANTS:
Since making the acclaimed short film "George Lucas in Love" in 1999, Screenwriter Joe Nussbaum has been working as a director and writer in movies, television, and commercials. He's directed the features Sleepover, American Pie Presents: The Naked Mile, Sydney White, and Disney's Prom. Nussbaum has also directed episodes of television for MTV, ABC, FOX, ABC Family, and Amazon, including multiple episodes of MTV's acclaimed series "Awkward" on which he was also a writer. Nussbaum has also written feature scripts for Warner Bros., Fox, New Regency, Alcon, Walden, and GK Films.  Joe serves as executive producer on the Amazon series "Just Add Magic", currently in it's second season and has directed a dozen of the show's episodes. In September of 2016, Warner Bros. released the web series "Now We're Talking" for which Joe directed every episode.

Ken Baker is an award-winning author and journalist currently serving as Senior Correspondent for E! News and E! Online which has earned him two Daytime Emmy Award nominations for outstanding Entertainment News Program and for his Breaking News coverage.  Ken joined E! after holding several top positions at Us Weekly, including West Coast Bureau Chief, Executive Editor and founding Editorial Director for USmagazine.com. Ken has over twenty years experience as a reporter, editorial news manager, website editor, pop culture essayist and TV/radio correspondent as well as President of his own media company, Something Clever Productions.   Ken is currently developing a TV series based on his 2014 novel, "How I Got Skinny, Famous and Fell Madly in Love," which earned him two Feathered Quill Awards.  Other literary works include "Fangirl," "Finding Forever: A Deadline Diaries Exclusive," "They Don't Play Hockey in Heaven," and "The Great Eight: How To Be Happy Even When You Have Every Reason To Be Miserable."

DENIAL

In her acclaimed 1993 book Denying the Holocaust, Deborah Lipstadt called David Irving, a prolific writer of books on World War II, "one of the most dangerous spokespersons for Holocaust denial." The following year, after Lipstadt's book was published in the United Kingdom, Irving filed a libel suit against Lipstadt and her publisher. She prepared her defense with the help of a first-rate team of solicitors, historians, and experts, and a dramatic trial unfolded. Denial, previously published as History on Trial, is Lipstadt's riveting, blow-by-blow account of this singular legal battle, which resulted in a formal denunciation of a Holocaust denier that crippled the movement for years to come. Lipstadt's victory was proclaimed on the front page of major newspapers around the world, such as The Times (UK), which declared that 'history has had its day in court and scored a crushing victory.

SYMPOSIUM PARTICIPANTS:
Dr. Deborah E. Lipstadt is Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies at Emory University in Atlanta. Her fifth book, Holocaust: An American Understanding has just been published by Rutgers's University Press. At Emory she directs the website known as HDOT [Holocaust Denial on Trial/www.hdot.org], which contains a complete archive of the proceedings of Irving v. Penguin UK and Deborah Lipstadt. At Emory, Lipstadt has won the Emory Williams Teaching Award; selected for the award by alumni as the teacher who had most influenced them. Lipstadt was an historical consultant to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and helped design the section dedicated to the American Response to the Holocaust. She has held and currently holds a Presidential appointment to the United States Holocaust Memorial Council and was asked to represent the White House at the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. At the US Holocaust Museum Lipstadt chairs the Committee on Anti-Semitism and State Sponsored Holocaust Denial. She is currently writing a book, The Anti-Semitic Delusion: Letters to a Student which will be published in 2017.

Gary Foster has produced films of all kinds, including a trio of films for Marvel: Daredevil, Elektra and Ghost Rider. Foster co-developed the acclaimed series "Community" and was an executive producer for all six seasons of the NBC/Yahoo!/Sony Pictures Television comedy series. Foster's credits as producer include When in Rome, Emperor and My Old Lady. Other feature credits include Gloria, Desperate Measures, Loverboy, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance and Side Out. For the small screen, Foster executive-produced the USA Network series "Satisfaction." A 1983 graduate of USC, Foster began his career as a producer in the mid-1980s. At the age of 25 he produced his first film, Short Circuit, and its success put the young producer's career in full swing. Other producing credits include:the Oscar® and Golden Globe nominated hit Sleepless in Seattle, Tin Cup, The Score, and The Soloist, starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey, Jr.  Because of The Soloist, Foster joined the Board of Directors of Lamp Community, a homeless shelter and mental health services provider in Los Angeles. He now serves as the board chairman.

GENIUS | MAX PERKINS: EDITOR OF GENIUS

"Genius," a star-studded new film based on A. Scott Berg's first book, Max Perkins: Editor of Genius, is filled with colorful anecdotes about everything from Perkins's struggles to convince the old guard at Scribner's to publish his visionary (and often controversial) authors to his falling out with one of his most brilliant discoveries, Thomas Wolfe.  These fascinating and highly personal stories about the relationship between the editor and his writers were the result of Berg's unprecedented access to Max Perkins's correspondence and family. The first film by legendary theater director Michael Grandage, "Genius" stars Colin Firth as Max Perkins, Jude Law as mercurial writer Thomas Wolfe, and Nicole Kidman as Aline Bernstein, a costume designer sharing a tumultuous relationship with Wolfe. Academy Award-nominated John Logan (Gladiator, The Aviator, Hugo, Skyfall) has written the screenplay.

SYMPOSIUM PARTICIPANTS:
A. Scott Berg was born in Connecticut in 1949 and raised in Los Angeles.  In 1971 he graduated cum laude from Princeton University, where he majored in English.  Berg is also the author of the bestselling GOLDWYN: A Biography, for which he received a Guggenheim Fellowship; KATE REMEMBERED, part biography and part reminiscence of his friendship with the late Katharine Hepburn; and his most recent book WILSON, a biography about Woodrow Wilson.In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, Berg's critically acclaimed LINDBERGH was also awarded the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for biography and spent several months on the New York Times bestseller list. 

FILM SCHEDULE

Denial: 10:00am
Arrival: 1:00pm
The Late Bloomer: 4:00pm
13 Hours: 6:30pm

SYMPOSIUM SCHEDULE

9:00AM TO 10:00AM | "Riches to Revolutionaries" | Septembers of Shiraz
Featuring screenwriter/producer Hanna Weg, moderated by TBA

10:15AM TO 11:15AM | "Growing up Is Hard to Do" | The Late Bloomer
A conversation with author Ken Baker and screenwriter Joe Nussbaum, moderated by Tod Goldberg. 

11:30AM TO 12:30PM | "Courage to Do What Was Right" | 13 Hours
A discussion with author Mitchell Zuckoff and screenwriter Chuck Hogan, moderated by Peter Debruge. 

2:00PM TO 3:00PM | "The Science of Language, the Art of Communication" | Arrival
A conversation with author Ted Chiang and screenwriter Eric Heisserer, moderated by Anne Thompson. 

3:15PM TO 4:15PM | "Literary Editor of Genius" | Genius
Featuring author A. Scott Berg, moderated by David Ulin. 

4:30PM TO 5:30PM | "Implausible Deniability" | Denial
A discussion with author Dr. Deborah E. Lipstadt and producer Gary Foster, moderated by Kathleen McInnis.

January 3 - Film Screenings
Mary Pickford Theater  

January 4 - Symposium Sessions - Schedule TBD 
Horizon Ballroom  |  Hilton Hotel  |  Palm Springs 400 E Tahquitz Canyon Way, Palm Springs, CA 92262

The Power of Words: Book to Screen Passes may be picked up at the Festival Ticket and Information Center beginning December 20, 2016.  Pick-up locations vary on pass type, please review the below.

• Only the passholder or person who purchased the pass may pick the pass(es) up 
• A photo ID is required to pick-up your pass

Ticket & Information Center
777 E Tahquitz Canyon Way
December 20-24: 10am-5pm
December 26-31: 10am-5pm
January 2-4: 10am-5pm