The History of Sound (2025) Film Screening and Talkback
Experience The History of Sound on the big screen, then stay for an exclusive discussion with Dartmouth author Ben Shattuck and WGBH arts correspondent Jared Bowen about adapting literature to film, New England history, and storytelling.
The History of Sound is a period romance film written by Shattuck, which he adapted from his 2024 novel of the same name. It follows the relationship between two men, played by Paul Mescal and Josh O'Connor, who meet in 1917 while attending the New England Conservatory of Music and travel together recording folk songs of their countrymen in rural Maine in the winter of 1920. Directed by Oliver Hermanus, the film was a Cannes Film Festival 2025 Official Selection.
Following the screening of The History of Sound, Shattuck and Bowen will dive deeper into the story and the process of adapting the title story of his novel into a screenplay.
About Ben Shattuck
Ben Shattuck, a former Teaching-Writing Fellow and graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, is a recipient of the PEN America Short Story Prize and a 2019 Pushcart Prize. Shattuck's first book, Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau (Tin House, 2022) was a New Yorker magazine Best Book of 2022, a Wall Street Journal Best Book of Spring, a New York Times Best Book of Summer, a New England Indie Bestseller, and a finalist for the Massachusetts Book Award. His second book, The History of Sound: Stories, published by Viking in 2024, received the Story Prize Spotlight Award and the 2025 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award. The collection was a Chicago Tribune 10 Best Books of 2024, a Kirkus Reviews Best Short Fiction, and was longlisted for the 2025 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and the 2024 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. He lives with his wife and daughter on the coast of Massachusetts, where he owns and runs the oldest general store in America, built in 1793. He is also the founder and director of the Cuttyhunk Island Writers' Residency.
About Jared Bown
Jared Bowen is the Emmy award-winning Executive Arts Editor and host of The Culture Show, a daily radio program and podcast at GBH exploring the creative process through a lively mix of local and national artist profiles, performances and exhibitions. Jared is a special correspondent for the PBS NewsHour and appears regularly on GBH 89.7, where he covers the latest happenings in the region’s theater, art, music, dance and film scenes on GBH’s Morning Edition and Boston Public Radio.
Event Links
Tickets: https://go.evvnt.com/3731358-0
