EXCLUSIVE: Greenwich Entertainment has acquired U.S. rights to Joyce Carol Oates: A Body in the Service of Mind, a documentary about one of America’s foremost literary figures. The company plans to release the film on September 8 simultaneously in theaters and on home entertainment platforms.
Stig Björkman (Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words, Georgia Georgia) directed the film about the author of Blonde (a fictionalized telling of Marilyn Monroe’s story that was adapted into the 2022 drama starring Ana de Armas), Rape: A Love Story (adapted into the 2017 film Vengeance: A Love Story starring Nicolas Cage), and dozens of other books, short story collections, plays, poetry and more. Oscar-winning actress Laura Dern (Marriage Story, Jurassic Park, Big Little Lies) provides readings in the documentary.
The documentary produced by Mantaray Film premiered at the Telluride Film Festival. We have your first look at the film in the trailer above.
Joyce Carol Oates
Bernard Gotfryd/Library of Congress
Joyce Carol Oates: A Body in the Service of Mind offers “a revealing look at the forces that shaped one of America’s most prolific, enduring authors and the remarkable regimen that has sustained an eight-decade career still going strong,” notes a release about the film. “Often described as ‘America’s foremost woman of letters,’ JCO has won the National Book Award (them), twice been a Pulitzer Prize finalist (The Wheel of Love and Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories) and is annually mentioned as a Nobel contender.”
The release adds, “Sixteen years in the making, Joyce Carol Oates: A Body in the Service of Mind takes us inside the societal events that affected her and her writing deeply such as the 1960’s riots in Detroit (them), the tragic Chappaquiddick incident (Black Water), and the life of Marilyn Monroe (Blonde).”
Greenwich Co-President Edward Arentz said, “The longtime friendship between subject and filmmaker allows for an unusually intimate and unguarded portrait of a remarkable writer and intellectual. Even longtime readers and fans may be surprised by details of Oates’ early life, but the overwhelming impression is of a privileged visit with a fascinating woman of prodigious artistic discipline, curiosity and engagement. Clearly she’s a national treasure, a cliched phase that Ms. Oates would no doubt shun but in her case it’s nevertheless entirely accurate.”
The octogenarian Oates just published her most recent book, a collection of short stories titled Zero-Sum. The New York Times magazine earlier this month said of Oates, “It’s hard to think of another writer with as fecund and protean an imagination as the 85-year-old, who is surely on any shortlist of America’s greatest living writers.”
Joyce Carol Oates was produced by Stina Gardel with Diana Holtzberg as executive producer. Greenwich’s Arentz negotiated the acquisition with East Village Entertainment’s Diana Holtzberg on behalf of the filmmakers.
Watch the trailer above.