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This December Jack London is coming to The Sebastiani Theater in Sonoma

For decades, Sonoma County has enjoyed a bounty of celebrated writers including Greg Sarris, Dorothy Allison, Dana Gioia, Barbara Baer, Michael Morey, Gerald Haslam, Michelle Anna Jordan, M .F. K. Fisher and many others.

Not a single one of them has been as famous the world over as Jack London, the author of 50 books including The Call of the Wild, White Fang, The Sea-Wolf with its mad captain, plus dozens of short stories such as “To Build a Fire” and dozens of newspaper articles about war and revolution.

So it should come as no surprise that London’s books have been turned into films over and over again ever since the birth of Hollywood more than a century ago. Martin Eden, the latest film to be inspired by London’s novel of the same name, comes to the Sebastiani Theater on the plaza in Sonoma for one night only on Dec. 10. It is being shown in association with the Jack London Society.

London fans might want to turn out for the event. They might want to hear the film’s director and producer, Jay Craven, talk about London and about the making of the feature length film that’s unlike any other that has ever been inspired by a work by the prodigious author and literary genius who was born in San Francisco, raised in Oakland and who carved out Beauty Ranch in Glen Ellen where he raised pigs and horses and aimed to create a cooperative society.

What’s new and different and that might be shocking to some dyed-in-the-wool London fans and that might shock London himself is that Craven has cast actors of color in the roles of the white characters who appear in the novel. Call it brazen, an act of madness, or Jack London-style genius. In any case it has worked for viewers who have seen the film and who say it speaks to them and to our own turbulent times.

Actors of color assume the roles assigned to white characters in the novel: Brissenden, a writer, a socialist and Martin Eden’s comrade; Lizzie, a working-class woman who tugs at Martin’s heart; and Maria, his feisty landlady. “From the start I wanted to work with Black and brown actors,” Craven says. “Unfortunately, the casting agent only sent me one Black guy who was supposed to play the role of Cheeseface who is beaten up by Martin. That was unacceptable. We couldn’t show Martin doing that to a Black man.” No, not in the age of Black Lives Matter.

Craven, a master of the camera and the screenplay, knows what he’s doing. A Vermont native, he has made nine feature films and six documentaries. Along the way, he’s worked with Martin Sheen, Kris Kristofferson, Rip Torn and the French-Canadian star, Genevieve Bujold, who always sizzles on the screen. Translating Martin Eden from book to movie presented Craven with challenges, especially when it came to the ending in which the protagonist goes to sea on an ocean liner, wiggles through a porthole and lowers himself beneath the waves. London’s writing is beautiful and breath-taking. “We massaged that last scene,” Craven says. He doesn’t want to give away too much, but he says, “In our version, Eden observes his own demise.”

Craven respects London, though he doesn’t idolize him. “It's ironic that London, who was raised by a Black woman, became somewhat of a white supremacist as an adult during a time when Black intellectuals were emerging on the American scene,” Craven says. Indeed, London’s white supremacy, along with his socialism, plus his optimism and pessimism are among the contradictions that fueled his extraordinary character and personality which he poured into Martin Eden, an autobiographical novel if ever there was one.

Roger Rhoten, who runs the Sebastiani, and who has made it a destination for moviegoers from near and far, remembers that the theater on the plaza has long been in the business of cinematic firsts. “The Hollywood version of The Sea-Wolf had its premiere here in 1941,” he says. “Many of the cast members, including John Garfield, Edward G. Robinson and Ida Lupino watched the film in Sonoma and then went up to the House of the Happy Walls which is now part of the Park, for a BBQ as guests of Charmian London, Jack’s widow.”

Sebastiani has a cinematic heritage to be proud of.

Martin Eden was made with the big screen in mind. Cinematic from beginning to end, it has the visual appeal of a well-made Hollywood classic. London, an early fan of the movies, sold the rights to many of his stories and tangled in court with producers and directors who aimed to steal his literary properties, though they were protected by copyright. Martin Eden is now in the public domain. London rarely if ever followed his own advice though he told up-and-coming writers: "avoid the unhappy ending, the harsh, the brutal, the tragic, the horrible—if you care to see in print the things you write.”

In London’s own day, Martin Eden was attacked from the pulpit because it was regarded as a glorification of the solitary individual and individualism. London insisted that it was meant as a critique of individualism. He also said, "The author is the least competent to judge what he produces." Whether you love Jack London or hate him, Jay Craven’s Martin Eden provides an opportunity to view a well-made movie and to talk to the writer/ producer/ director himself and find out what makes him tick.

Jay Craven’s Martin Eden. Friday, Dec. 10, 2021. 8 p.m. Sebastiani Theater, $15. For more information, 707-996-9756.

Jonah Raskin is the editor of The Radical Jack London: Writings on War and Revolution.

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