March 13, 2001
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass. Director Alison Maclean will screen her 1999 film "Jesus' Son" and a 1989 short film "The Kitchen Sink" on Wednesday, March 28 at 4 p.m. in Stirn Auditorium at Amherst College. Maclean will speak and take questions from the audience after the films. The event is free and open to the public.

"Jesus' Son" is an adaptation of Denis Johnson's 1992 collection of short stories about alienation, ennui and drugs in the American heartland in the 70's. "Jesus' Son" stars Billy Crudup, Holly Hunter, Samantha Morton, Denis Leary and Dennis Hopper.

The New York Times found "Jesus' Son" a "scruffy, likeable" film, and described its hero as a "Candide strung out on every drug he can find, or an itinerant holy man hitchhiking across the Midwest in wet, filthy hipster hand-me-downs." The Times also praised Maclean's "loose, improvisatory rhythm that matches Mr. Johnson's discursive riffing, and gives her scenes a keen edge of surprise."

Maclean was born in Canada and raised in New Zealand, where she attended art school. Her first feature was the noirish psychological thriller "Crush," made in New Zealand in 1992. Maclean has worked in television as well as film; she directed the first two episodes of "Sex and the City" in 1998 and an episode of "Subway Stories: Tales from Underground" in 1997 for HBO, as well as an episode of "Homicide: Life on the Street" in 1993.

Alison Maclean's films and talk are sponsored by the Amherst College Department of English.

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