McBride will lecture on the life and work of John Ford, one of the greatest film directors of all time, presenting a complex and fascinating portrait of a troubled and conflicted artist and man. Born John Feeney of Galway-immigrant parents, he was an Irish outsider in Yankee New England. He began working in the film industry in 1914 as a studio ditch digger, but was soon acting in films and, a few years later, directing them. By the early 1930s, he had achieved considerable artistic and commercial fame with "The Informer", and went to create the iconic Western films for which he is best known. McBride will present clips from some of Ford's greatest films. 

 

Joseph McBride is an internationally renowned film historian and biographer who has published fourteen books on film.  McBride’s books include the acclaimed biography "Searching for John Ford", hailed as the definitive biography of the great American director by both the New York Times and the Irish Times. The French edition of the Ford biography, A la recherche de John Ford, won the “Best Foreign Film Book of the Year” award from the French film critics' organization, le Syndicat Français de la Critique de Cinéma, in 2008.

McBride is an associate professor in the Cinema Department at San Francisco State University, where he has been teaching screenwriting and film history since 2002.

The lecture is free to ILHS members.  A $5 donation is asked of non-members.