SCREENING 7th DECEMBER 2025

Perhaps in an attempt to ensure his vision made it to the screen unmediated, writer Charlie Kaufman took on directorial responsibilities for the first time with the remarkable Synecdoche, New York. A film of such complexity as to demand repeat viewings to unravel everything it reaches for, it centres on Caden Cotard (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a theatre director whose personal life is falling apart even as a MacArthur Fellowship allows him new professional possibilities. He creates a mimetic New York that expands over the years and decades that follow, blurring the reality and fiction of its cast/population in dizzying ways.

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Charlie Kaufman, hosted by author Mark O’Connell.

Notes by Kevin Coyne

See also How to Shoot a Ghost + Q&A