As Smart As They Are: The Author Project September 14, 2005

As Smart As They Are: The Author Project documents the collaboration between the band One Ring Zero and an ensemble cast of award-winning writers. After moving to New York, One Ring Zero's founding members, Joshua Camp and Michael Hearst, discovered a curious unmarked store in Brooklyn that doubled as an office for McSweeney's Publishing and served as the venue for a weekly literary reading series. With Camp on accordion and Hearst on claviola, the duo soon began performing as the house-band for the series and ultimately invited a handful of authors to contribute lyrics. After receiving contributions from a wide range of celebrated writers including Paul Auster, Rick Moody, Jonathan Lethem and McSweeney's founder, Dave Eggers, the band faced the challenge of setting this diverse compilation of lyrics to music. Through capturing live performances, studio sessions and interviews with the writers and musicians, As Smart As They Are explores the relationships between music and literature while painting a portrait of the New York literary community that fostered the band. Featuring: One Ring Zero, Paul Auster, Dave Eggers, Jonathan Lethem, Rick Moody, Jonathan Ames, Myla Goldberg, Darin Strauss, Clay McLeod Chapman, Amy Fusselman and Lawrence Krauser.

The film screens as part of the New Filmmakers Series, and director Joe Pacheco will be present.