Wondrous Strange on the Potomac

On a winter evening in Washington — where policy, power and prestige often share the same cocktail napkin — the Motion Picture Association hosted a screening that felt decidedly more Elizabethan than Beltway. The film was Hamnet, and the mood was reverent, literary and as Shakespeare himself might say, “Wondrous Strange.”

Welcoming the guests, the evening’s host Gail MacKinnon set the tone with gratitude, warmth and a knowing nod to the audience’s cultural fluency.

“Thanks for joining us tonight. All of MPA’s film screenings are special, but this as William Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet is ‘Wondrous Strange.’ And so for those of you who are Shakespeare authorities, you’ll get that.” The room — an intersection of studio power, advocacy leadership and Washington insiders — leaned in as the host revealed her own Shakespearean credentials. “So as a longtime board member of the Shakespeare Theater Company and the co-chair of this year’s Annual Gala, to those of you are Shakespeare fans, I’ll give you my email address because I welcome any and all contributions.”

Then came the heart of the evening: A meditation on grief, art and the human story behind the Bard.

From Academy Award® winning writer/director Chloé Zhao, Hamnet tells the powerful story of love and loss that inspired the creation of Shakespeare’s timeless masterpiece, Hamlet.

Starring Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Emily Watson, Joe Alwyn

Directed By Chloé Zhao

Written By Chloé Zhao, Maggie O’Farrell

Produced By Liza Marshall, p.g.a., Pippa Harris, p.g.a, Nicolas Gonda, p.g.a., Steven Spielberg, p.g.a., Sam Mendes, p.g.a.

Hamnet was released by Focus Features, a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, which is in turn owned by Comcast.

“So this screening is truly special to me and I’m delighted to be here with all of you to enjoy this fabulous film which allows us to experience the private grief and emotional soil from which Shakespeare’s play has grown. Hamnet transforms biography into art and explores themes of love and loss and language that deepen the legend of Shakespeare by telling the human story behind his ageless words and stories. It’s a modern but timeless story, and it is a masterpiece that we at MPA are very proud to support.”

Rachel Pearson who founded Engage, a nonprofit organization focused on women’s economic security and common-sense bipartisan solutions, co-hosted the event along with Linda Shim from Comcast.

Read more here.