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[Verbatim e-mail] My name is Kelly Foster, and I’m an English Teacher in the Upper School at St. Andrews Episcopal School in Ridgeland. I am helping to put together a Symposium this December featuring lectures and performances by Nathan Johnson, composer/producer/graphic designer of films like Brick, which won a Jury Prize at Sundance in 2006, and albums like How to Save a Life by The Fray, which is now the biggest-selling digital album in history. His most recent score will soon be featured in the film, The Brothers Bloom, written and directed by his cousin, Rian Johnson, and starring Mark Ruffalo, Adrien Brody, Rachel Weisz, and Rinko Kikuchi. (For samples of Nathan’s work, please glance over the enclosed links at the end of this message)

Nathan will be giving three interactive lectures in the St. Andrews Center for the Performing Arts (CPA), one from 7:30-9pm, Friday December 12th. Then two lectures on Saturday, December 13th, the first from 11am-12:30pm, the second from 2-4pm. The content of the lectures will range from structuring the creative work to being a working artist (and feeding yourself) to using technology to advance creativity. Nathan will be showing scenes from several of the films that he’s worked on, and will give an extended Q & A after the third lecture. Fee for the lectures will be $5 for any student of any school (that one price covers all three lectures) or $10 for non-students (that price likewise covers all three lectures).

A portion of the proceeds will donated to a memorial fund commemorating Ethan Lang, a St. Andrews’ artist and student who died this summer.

Previous Comments

Very cool event. All you filmmaking fans take note.


Yeah! This sounds awesome. I’ll be there.

Founding Editor Donna Ladd is a writer, journalist and editor from Philadelphia, Miss., a graduate of Mississippi State University and later the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, where she was an alumni award recipient in 2021. She writes about racism/whiteness, poverty, gender, violence, journalism and the criminal justice system. She contributes long-form features and essays to The Guardian when she has time, and was the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Jackson Free Press. She co-founded the statewide nonprofit Mississippi Free Press with Kimberly Griffin in March 2020, and the Mississippi Business Journal named her one of the state's top CEOs in 2024. Read more at donnaladd.com, follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @donnerkay and email her at donna@mississippifreepress.org.