Upcoming Events Focus on Steve Martin, The Jerk, Gloria Steinem and That Girl

The Museum of the Moving Image is showing its bookish side. Next week, the Kaufman Arts District venue will host two events featuring prolific authors. On Sunday, Robert E. Kapsis, a professor of sociology and film studies at Queens College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, will speak before a screening of The Jerk, which stars Steve Martin (above). Kapsis, who has penned books on Alfred Hitchcock and Woody Allen, has just published Conversations with Steve Martin (University Press of Mississippi, 2014), a collection of interviews and profiles that focus on Martin as a writer, comedian, actor, artist, and original thinker. After the film, which is an expanded version of one of Martin’s comedy routines about a nitwit who grows up as “a poor black child” and decides to become white, Kapsis will sign copies of his book.

More information on this event and a discussion with a best-selling feminist author after the jump.

On October 7th, the museum will host a discussion between two of the biggest players in the Women’s Liberation Movement. Gloria Steinem, a journalist, political activist and co-founder of Ms. Magazine, will discuss feminism with Marlo Thomas, who created, produced, and starred in the 1966-1971 comedy television series That Girl. Thomas played single working girl Ann Marie (above and  below), who lived on her own and was avoiding marriage, much to her father’s dismay. An aspiring actress who moved from her hometown to New York City, Ann Marie took some off-beat temp jobs to support herself as she went on auditions and acted in bit parts. 

Details: The Jerk: Screening and Live Event, Museum of the  Moving Image, 36-01 35th Avenue, Kaufman Arts District, October 5th, 2:30 pm, price not listed.

Bonus details: The Visionary: Marlo Thomas, TV’s First Independent Woman, MMI, October 7th, 7 pm, $25.

Top photo: Museum of the Moving Image; bottom photos: Marlo Thomas/FB