Martin Scorsese, Academy Award winning American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, film historian and preservationist delivers the 42nd annual Jefferson Lecture on April 1 at 7:30 PM at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC.

Scorsese's lecture, "Persistence of Vision: Reading the Language of Cinema," will be followed by an on-stage conversation with noted film-critic and long-time collaborator Kent Jones.

The annual Jefferson Lecture, sponsored by NEH, is the most prestigious honor the federal government bestows for distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities. Past Jefferson Lecturers include Wendell Berry, Drew Gilpin Faust, John Updike, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Bernard Bailyn, Toni Morrison, Arthur Miller, James McPherson, Barbara Tuchman, and Robert Penn Warren.