PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] —Filmmaker Ezra Edelman, who won an Academy Award for his documentary film “O.J.: Made in America,” will deliver the 17th annual Casey Shearer Lecture at Brown University on Thursday, April 13.
Edelman’s presentation, which will cover his work as a producer and director, will begin at 6 p.m. in Room 117 of MacMillan Hall at 167 Thayer St. in Providence. The lecture is free and open to the public — no tickets are required.
The lectureship, sponsored by Brown University and the Goldway-Shearer family, was established in memory of Casey Shearer, a promising young writer and aspiring sportscaster who died in May 2000, days before he was to graduate from Brown. Previous speakers have included Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Joe Morgenstern, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, ABC analyst Cokie Roberts, Marian Wright Edelman of the Children’s Defense Fund, film director Davis Guggenheim, NPR national political correspondent Mara Liasson, food activist Curt Ellis and writer Pico Iyer, among others.
Winners of the annual Casey Shearer Memorial Awards for Excellence in Creative Nonfiction will be announced prior to the lecture.
Ezra Edelman
Ezra Edelman is a producer and the filmmaker behind the Academy Award-winning film “O.J.: Made in America.” The five-part documentary is the third film Edelman directed for ESPN’s acclaimed “30-for-30” documentary series. Films in the series focus on sports or an athlete but broach larger themes that range beyond sports.
In 2013, Edelman co-produced the documentary “Cutie and The Boxer,” which was also nominated for an Academy Award, and he has produced and directed three films for HBO, including the Peabody Award-winning “Magic and Bird: A Courtship of Rivals” and “Brooklyn Dodgers: The Ghosts of Flatbush,” which won an Emmy.
Before beginning work in documentaries, Edelman spent seven years as a producer on the news magazine show “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.” A native of Washington, D.C., Edelman graduated from Yale University and currently lives in Brooklyn.
Casey Shearer
Casey Shearer, a member of the Class of 2000, was a vibrant and talented member of the Brown community. An economics concentrator, he also studied Spanish, political science, and literature, and helped revive Brown Student Radio (WBSR). He was best known on campus as the station’s play-by-play sports announcer and as the author of the weekly sports column “On the Case,” published in the College Hill Independent. Shearer was born and raised in Santa Monica, Calif., where his mother, Ruth Goldway, once served as mayor. He graduated from high school in Finland, where his father, Derek Shearer, an Occidental College professor, served as U.S. ambassador. A top student at Brown, Shearer was a member of the economics honor society and received his magna cum laude pin the Friday before he was to graduate. That same day, during a regular pickup game of basketball, Shearer’s heart stopped and he collapsed. Four days later, he died of an undetected heart virus, two months before his 22nd birthday.