No American writer flew so high, or crashed so publicly, as Truman Capote. Abandoned by his mother in rural Alabama, he rose to the heights of New York society as the author of Breakfast at Tiffany’s and In Cold Blood. He hosted the legendary “Black and White Ball” at the Plaza Hotel and became the trusted confidante of such social aristocrats as Babe Paley, Lee Radziwill and C.Z. Guest, who dropped him with a vengeance when Capote published excerpts from the unfinished Answered Prayers, exposing their deepest secrets in barely fictionalized form. Director Ebs Burnough’s comprehensive and revelatory film has access to newly discovered taped interviews that George Plimpton conducted with Capote’s friends and enemies. It adds insightful interviews with Dick Cavett, writers Colm Tóibín and Jay McInerney, and with his assistant Kate Harrington, whose father was one of Capote’s lovers. The Capote Tapes does full justice to the brilliance, courage and demons of this singular literary icon.

Director Ebs Burnough is expected to be in attendance on January 9 and 10.