News and Events
FTT Talks presents:
Patrick Creadon, Director of Award Winning Film WORDPLAY Sept. 14 and 15
Notre Dame alumnus Patrick Creadon ('89) presents his award winning documentary WORDPLAY Thursday and Friday September 14-15 at 7:00 pm and 10:00 pm in the Browning Cinema of the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center.
Tickets: $6, $5 faculty/staff,
$4 seniors, and $3 all students
Official Selection - Sundance and Tribeca Film Festivals
Rated PG, 94 minutes
Director Patrick Creadon will be present at ALL screenings.
Inky-fingered New York Times readers often love to attempt the mind-bending crossword puzzles lovingly curated for the paper by longstanding contributor Will Shortz. There are few things more satisfying than completing one of Shortz's puzzles, and a cult has sprung up around the enigmatic crossword compiler as Times readers put pen to paper and attempt to pick his brains. Director Patrick Creadon has capitalized on this phenomenon with the film Wordplay, a genial documentary based around Shortz and his devoted followers. Creadon begins by tracing Shortz's unusual ascent to his tenure at the Times, creating a picture of an easygoing, well-liked and respected man. Creadon also takes viewers on a trip to the 28th annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, a geek haven where someone like Shortz assumes Godlike status. Indeed, it was Shortz himself who created the contest, and he still presides over it, demonstrating a great deal of affection for the tournament and its participants. As we witness the various eccentrics battling it out in an attempt to be the 28th winner of the contest, some of Shortz's celebrity fans get plenty of camera time, with The Daily Show's Jon Stewart and former president Bill Clinton among them. Clinton even recalls an amusing occasion when a particularly tricky puzzle left readers wondering whether "Clinton" or "Bob Dole" was the seven-letter solution to one of Shortz's clues--in fact some clever juggling of letters meant that both answers could have been correct. An enjoyable movie that even manages to make the crossword tournament a gripping affair, Wordplay suceeds largely thanks to its immensely likeable central figure and the behavior of the kooky contestents at Shortz's annual tournament.
Patrick Creadon was born in Chicago. He began his career as one of the youngest cameramen in the history of PBS, shooting and producing cinema-verite style stories for the critically acclaimed series THE 90's. Mr. Creadon earned his Master's Degree in Cinematography at the American Film Institute, where his thesis film (on which he served as Director of Photography) was nominated for a student Academy Award. As a cameraman, his work has appeared on every major network, including NBC, CBS, ABC, MTV, VH1, and ESPN. He has also done work for Paramount Pictures, Warner Brothers, Sony, Universal Studios, and Disney.