Panel to Include Film’s Director, Book’s Author and Letter Writers

KERA Host Lee Cullum to Moderate

The AT&T Performing Arts Center announced today it expects that 300-400 additional seats will be available at the door for the free public screening of the new documentary Letters to Jackie: Remembering President Kennedy on Thursday, November 14. All seating for the 7:30 p.m. screening in the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House, including RSVPs, is available on a first come, first served basis and no seats are guaranteed. The house will open at 6:00 p.m.

Letters to Jackie is based on the hundreds of thousands of condolence letters sent to First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy in the days and weeks following the assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963. The letters tell the story of the Kennedy love story and legacy and express the collective grief of a nation. The film, a coproduction of Amblin Television, LTC and The Couturié Company, will have its official release on November 17.

The Center also announced today that immediately following the 90-minute screening, KERA host Lee Cullum will head up a panel featuring Oscar-winning Bill Couturié, director of Letters to Jackie. It will also include Ellen Fitzpatrick, author of Letters to Jackie: Condolences from a Grieving Nation upon which the film is based. Two of the letter writers will also participate; Dallas resident Janice Crabtree Bunnell, who witnessed the motorcade pass her on Main Street (her letter was voiced by Oscar-winning actress Anne Hathaway) and Los Angeles resident Janis Hirsch, who was a young polio survivor when she wrote Mrs. Kennedy. Today Ms. Hirsch is a writer/producer whose credits include Will & Grace, Frazier, Murphy Brown and It’s Garry Shandling’s Show.

The film, a special Sunset Screening event in connection with the Dallas Film Society, will be preceded with welcome remarks from Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings. The Dallas Morning News, Sixth Floor Museum and World Affairs Council of Dallas-Fort Worth are also sponsors of the event, with a VIP reception hosted by Paper City Magazine.

In addition to Ms. Hathaway, the voiceover cast of Letters to Jackie: Remembering President Kennedy includes Academy Award winners Octavia Spencer, Frances McDormand, Chris Cooper and Melissa Leo; Tony Award winner Viola Davis; Golden Globe winners Michelle Williams and Jessica Chastain; and Emmy Award winners Betty White, Laura Linney and Allison Janney. The film also features the voices of young Hollywood celebrities like Channing Tatum, Kirsten Dunst, John Krasinski and Zooey Deschanel.