An Evening with Mark Binelli: Just a Shot Away: Martin Scorsese’s Life in Film

A special night of film, storytelling, and rare archival cinema.

Join us Thursday, October 8 at 7:30pm for an exclusive evening with acclaimed author Mark Binelli, who will preview his forthcoming biography Just a Shot Away: Martin Scorsese’s Life in Film, the first major, full‑scale portrait of the legendary director, arriving November 3 from Metropolitan Books.

Binelli, a contributing writer to The New York Times Sunday Magazine whose previous works include Detroit City Is the Place to Be and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ All-Time Greatest Hits, will share insights from a deeply researched 544‑page journey through Scorsese’s life and career. The book sweeps from young Marty’s childhood on the violent streets of mid-century Little Italy, recreated in unprecedented detail, to his tectonic contributions to the cinema of the New Hollywood and beyond. The making of such masterpieces as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and The Last Waltz are explored in revelatory depth, along with undersung favorites like Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore and After Hours. Just a Shot Away dynamically recasts the life of the master filmmaker with brio and the headlong, form-shattering dynamism of one of its subject’s own indelible pictures.

With the support of the Challenger Learning Center, the night kicks off with a presentation of selected early Scorsese short films — projected like you’ve never seen them before — on the Challenger’s five‑story IMAX screen. These rarely screened works offer a vivid glimpse into the young director’s emerging voice and obsessions.

Films to be screened include:

• What’s a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? (1963): A 9-minute surreal comedy and Scorsese’s very first short film made while at New York University. 
• American Boy (1978): A 55-minute profile focusing on Steven Prince, a former road manager for Neil Diamond and actor from Taxi Driver.