The History of Sound (2025) Film Screening & Talkback with Ben Shattuck, Chris Cooper, & Jared Bowen
Advertisement
A celebrated local author. A major motion picture. One unforgettable conversation.
Experience the acclaimed new film The History of Sound, written by Southcoast native and bestselling author Ben Shattuck and featuring Paul Mescal and Josh O'Connor, followed by an exclusive conversation with Shattuck, Academy Award-winning actor Chris Cooper and WGBH Arts Editor Jared Bowen.
The History of Sound is a period romance film written by Shattuck, which he adapted from his 2024 novel of the same name. It follows the relationship between two men, played by Paul Mescal and Josh O'Connor, who meet in 1917 while attending the New England Conservatory of Music and travel together recording folk songs of their countrymen in rural Maine in the winter of 1920. Directed by Oliver Hermanus, the film was a Cannes Film Festival 2025 Official Selection.
Following the screening of The History of Sound, Shattuck, Cooper, and Bowen will dive deeper into the story and Shattuck's process of adapting the title story of his novel into a screenplay.
About Ben Shattuck
Ben Shattuck, a former Teaching-Writing Fellow and graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, is a recipient of the PEN America Short Story Prize and a 2019 Pushcart Prize. Shattuck's first book, Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau (Tin House, 2022) was a New Yorker magazine Best Book of 2022, a Wall Street Journal Best Book of Spring, a New York Times Best Book of Summer, a New England Indie Bestseller, and a finalist for the Massachusetts Book Award. His second book, The History of Sound: Stories, published by Viking in 2024, received the Story Prize Spotlight Award and the 2025 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award. The collection was a Chicago Tribune 10 Best Books of 2024, a Kirkus Reviews Best Short Fiction, and was longlisted for the 2025 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and the 2024 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. He lives with his wife and daughter on the coast of Massachusetts, where he owns and runs the oldest general store in America, built in 1793. He is also the founder and director of the Cuttyhunk Island Writers' Residency.
About Chris Cooper
Chis Cooper is an Academy Award-winning actor known for his roles as Colonel Frank Fitts in American Beauty, John Laroche in Adaptation, which earned him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, and Tom Smith in Seabiscuit. Cooper currently resides in Massachusetts, and in 2016, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
About Jared Bowen
Jared Bowen is the Emmy award-winning Executive Arts Editor and host of The Culture Show, a daily radio program and podcast at GBH exploring the creative process through a lively mix of local and national artist profiles, performances and exhibitions. Jared is a special correspondent for the PBS NewsHour and appears regularly on GBH 89.7, where he covers the latest happenings in the region’s theater, art, music, dance and film scenes on GBH’s Morning Edition and Boston Public Radio.
Experience the acclaimed new film The History of Sound, written by Southcoast native and bestselling author Ben Shattuck and featuring Paul Mescal and Josh O'Connor, followed by an exclusive conversation with Shattuck, Academy Award-winning actor Chris Cooper and WGBH Arts Editor Jared Bowen.
The History of Sound is a period romance film written by Shattuck, which he adapted from his 2024 novel of the same name. It follows the relationship between two men, played by Paul Mescal and Josh O'Connor, who meet in 1917 while attending the New England Conservatory of Music and travel together recording folk songs of their countrymen in rural Maine in the winter of 1920. Directed by Oliver Hermanus, the film was a Cannes Film Festival 2025 Official Selection.
Following the screening of The History of Sound, Shattuck, Cooper, and Bowen will dive deeper into the story and Shattuck's process of adapting the title story of his novel into a screenplay.
About Ben Shattuck
Ben Shattuck, a former Teaching-Writing Fellow and graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, is a recipient of the PEN America Short Story Prize and a 2019 Pushcart Prize. Shattuck's first book, Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau (Tin House, 2022) was a New Yorker magazine Best Book of 2022, a Wall Street Journal Best Book of Spring, a New York Times Best Book of Summer, a New England Indie Bestseller, and a finalist for the Massachusetts Book Award. His second book, The History of Sound: Stories, published by Viking in 2024, received the Story Prize Spotlight Award and the 2025 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award. The collection was a Chicago Tribune 10 Best Books of 2024, a Kirkus Reviews Best Short Fiction, and was longlisted for the 2025 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and the 2024 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. He lives with his wife and daughter on the coast of Massachusetts, where he owns and runs the oldest general store in America, built in 1793. He is also the founder and director of the Cuttyhunk Island Writers' Residency.
About Chris Cooper
Chis Cooper is an Academy Award-winning actor known for his roles as Colonel Frank Fitts in American Beauty, John Laroche in Adaptation, which earned him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, and Tom Smith in Seabiscuit. Cooper currently resides in Massachusetts, and in 2016, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
About Jared Bowen
Jared Bowen is the Emmy award-winning Executive Arts Editor and host of The Culture Show, a daily radio program and podcast at GBH exploring the creative process through a lively mix of local and national artist profiles, performances and exhibitions. Jared is a special correspondent for the PBS NewsHour and appears regularly on GBH 89.7, where he covers the latest happenings in the region’s theater, art, music, dance and film scenes on GBH’s Morning Edition and Boston Public Radio.
Advertisement
Where is it happening?
684 Purchase St, New Bedford, MA, United States, Massachusetts 02740
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.
Host or PublisherZeiterion
