Ithaca, 1990. A world-famous Soviet dissident novelist is shot dead in a New Jersey holdup, leaving nearly five million dollars in life insurance. The broke investigator sent to look into the claims takes one look at the autopsy photos and realizes the dead man isn’t Orlovsky.
Kew Gardens, Queens, 1949. When a teacher notices that two six-year-olds were switched at birth, a war between two families is ignited.
A physicist who tells stories — in print since 1974, on screen across four continents.
His novels include the best-sellers Paradise Rezoned and Baby, published in the United States and China. As a director he has made documentaries in Cambodia, Myanmar, Ethiopia and Mongolia; Faces in a Famine and Last Stop Kew Gardens were broadcast nationally on PBS.
A long-time member of Cornell’s Physics faculty, he received the John M. and Emily B. Clark Award for Distinguished Teaching and has held a series of Fulbright Lectureships and Senior Specialist posts in Europe and Southeast Asia.
Read “Film and the art of joy” ↗