Newswise — ITHACA, NY — The Sundance Film Festival will host the premiere screening on January 23 of the film adaptation of “Ten Thousand Saints,” the acclaimed coming-of-age novel by Ithaca College assistant professor of writing Eleanor Henderson. Following its premiere at the Eccles Theater in Park City, Utah, the film will be shown four more times during the course of the festival.
“Ten Thousand Saints” was selected to screen in the out-of-competition section of Sundance, an annual showcase for new work from American and international independent filmmakers that has served as a launching pad for movies ranging from “Reservoir Dogs” to “Little Miss Sunshine.”
Henderson will be on hand for the premiere. She’s hoping the film will attract a distributor so that it can be released in theaters later this year.
“The novel came from my imagination alone,” says Henderson. “With the movie, I still have that personal attachment, but I’m only one player in a much more elaborate act of storytelling. The story doesn’t just belong to me anymore. So I’m anticipating the premiere with some pride — and some anxiety — but mostly just the joy of a moviegoer. Getting to be both inside and outside that process is a pretty special privilege.”
Henderson’s debut novel was adapted for the screen and directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, who were previously nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for “American Splendor.” The cast features Ethan Hawke — just nominated himself for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for “Boyhood” — along with Emily Mortimer, Julianne Nicholson and an ensemble of young actors including Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld, Emile Hirsch and Avian Jogia.
The story follows three lost kids and their equally lost parents as they come of age in New York’s East Village in the era of CBGB, yuppies and the tinderbox of gentrification that exploded into the Tompkins Square Park Riot of 1988. The film was shot in and around New York City in early 2014.
Following its publication in 2011, “Ten Thousand Saints” earned glowing reviews and was included on a multitude of the year’s “best of” lists, including those of the New York Times, New Yorker, Amazon.com, Newsweek/The Daily Beast and O, The Oprah Magazine.
Henderson joined the Department of Writing in the School of Humanities and Sciences in the fall of 2010 and teaches courses in creative and academic writing and historical fiction. She was the coeditor of the nonfiction collection “Labor Day: True Birth Stories by the Best Women Writers,” and her short story “The Farms” was a Pushcart Prize nominee and was selected for “The Best American Short Stories 2009.” She has served as a contributing editor at Poets & Writers and chair of the fiction board at Virginia Quarterly Review.
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From day one, Ithaca College prepares students for personal and professional success through hands-on experience with internships, research and study abroad. Its integrative curriculum builds bridges across disciplines and uniquely blends liberal arts and professional study. Located in New York’s Finger Lakes region, the College is home to 6,100 undergraduate and 460 graduate students and offers over 100 degree programs in its schools of Business, Communications, Humanities and Sciences, Health Sciences and Human Performance, and Music.
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