August 30, 2026
The popular Crandell Book-to-Film Club, launched earlier this year, will return to the Crandell on August 30 at 4pm for a screening of the 2020 Academy Award-winning film Nomadland, which also won Oscars for director Chloé Zhao and star Frances McDormand. The club blends a community read, a Crandell screening and a thoughtful discussion comparing the book and its film adaptation. It gives community members a unique forum to finally settle the age-old question of which is better, the book or the film.
Jessica Bruder’s nonfiction Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century reveals the growing “nomad” movement among aging Americans, unable to find work locally, who travel across the country in their RVs looking for their next job. The author spent years traveling the country interviewing more than 50 itinerant workers. Although she exposes the dark realities of the post-recession economy, she also found among the nomads a profound and meaningful sense of community, resilience, and personal empowerment.
The Oscar-winning film adaptation of Nomadland explores what’s beyond the perimeters of a dying town, chronicling heartbreak, healing and persistence through some of America’s most remote places. Zhao wove the true-life tales Bruder captured in her book into a screenplay with the fictional Fern, played by McDormand, at the center. Zhao also populated the supporting cast with the very same people Bruder profiled.
Directly following the Sunday, August 30, 4pm screening, Crandell Board Member and Vice President of Programming, Calliope Nicholas, who also serves as FilmColumbia’s Festival Director, will lead a discussion of the book and the film.