American Oz: A Special Event Screening & Fundraiser w/ The Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation

The Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation is partnering with PBS for a special event flowing from the premier Monday, April 19 (9pm EST), of American Oz, a documentary about Oz author L. Frank Baum. 

WATCH THE TRAILER

On Tuesday, April 20 at 8pm
A funding event with (and for) the Gage Center will feature a Q&A with Randall MacLowry and Tracy Heather Strain, the filmmakers who wrote, directed and produced the film for PBS’ American Experience. They will share how they came to make American Oz and the challenges of filming it during the pandemic, followed by a Q&A. The event will be moderated by the Gage Foundation’s Executive Director, Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner, who appears in the film. 

All proceeds will benefit the Gage Foundation.

Tickets to the virtual event cost $25 and can be purchased by calling the Gage Center at 315-637-9511 with a credit card, or directly through their WEBSITE.  

Baum, who was married to Matilda’s youngest daughter Maud, was deeply influenced by his mother-in-law, whom scholars describe as his intellectual mentor. American Oz  tells the remarkable story of the man behind one of the most beloved and quintessential American classics, which has been reinterpreted through the generations in films, books and musicals. The film credits Gage for the social justice and feminist views in Baum’s books. It will be shown on PBS stations (WCNY in Syracuse) and streamed on americanexperience.org. 

Randall MacLowry  and Tracy Heather Strain are award-winning filmmakers who craft documentaries and non-fiction media projects through their production company, The Film Posse. Their credits include numerous films for the PBS series American Experience. They produced and edited the critically acclaimed Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart, which won a Peabody Award; Strain additionally won an NAACP Image Award for Motion Picture Directing and the American Historical Association’s John E. O’Connor Film Award for the film. MacLowry has received two Writers Guild awards, and two of his American Experience films won the Organization for American Historians’ Erik Barnouw Award. MacLowry and Strain serve on the faculty of Wesleyan University’s College of Film and the Moving Image.