Time Out New York: Joan Didion's Nephew, Griffin Dunne, About His New Documentary On The Beloved Author
Credit: Kathleen Ballard, Los Angeles Times
At 82 years old, author Joan Didion has guided several generations through complicated cultural touchstones, from California’s drug-laced coming-of-age in the ’60s to the dark politics of the 1988 presidential election. She’s written emotionally naked books on losing both her husband, John Dunne, and only daughter, Quintana Roo, within the space of two years, and wrote the 1967 essay “Goodbye to All That,” which sparked a thousand pieces on leaving New York. Yet the born-again New Yorker (she’s lived on the Upper East Side for almost 30 years) has never been a documentary subject—until now. We spoke to Griffin Dunne, actor (I Love Dick) and Didion’s nephew, about his new documentary, Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold—in theaters and on Netflix Friday 27—which charts Didion’s private family life through her venerated works.