Summary: Ex-Monty Python member Terry Jones writes a weekly piece for the "Input" column of the Young Guardian, in which he argues a case for something he feels strongly about. Terry describes how he gets ideas and goes about the process of research and writing. Terry illustrates how he tries to find an unusual angle to writing an argument and compares different approaches.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: Jaci Stephen is the television reviewer of the Evening Standard. She moves through the world of television in numerous ways-at launches and previews, inside television companies, and sitting at home watching programs. She describes how she goes about writing, the problems posed by different genres, and the restrictions placed upon her writing by the nature of her audience-the readers of a...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Mary Peplow and Debra Shipley write guidebooks. In this program, they describe different ways in which they accumulate information for their projects and how they select from their research, edit, and shape it. The program is based on their writing for London: The Good Tour Guide, and focuses in detail on the research, collection, and writing up of information for a tour around a Ford...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
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Summary: How can a handful of words, scribbled on a napkin or a train schedule, grow into a timeless play? How does a storyteller create characters with lives and intentions of their own? Is writing a miraculous act, impossible to explain or describe, or is it 90 percent perspiration? In this program, a chorus of famous authors discuss creative strategies that lead to emotionally charged stories and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: In this program, the widely-respected press and television journalist John Pilger introduces ideas about reporting. He describes his basic training, and some of the editorial constraints on his writing. He advocates principles of simplicity, truthfulness, meticulous checking of facts, and steadfastness in the face of powerful censors. He gives examples of brave reporting by V. H. Russell (of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: Being a writer isn't all book signings and fat royalty checks. By looking squarely at the potential downside of the writing life-rejection letters, second-novel syndrome, and really bad reviews-this program offers insider tips on coping while encouraging viewers to press on to success. Professional writers such as Martin Amis, Pat Conroy, Joyce Carol Oates, and Maxine Hong Kingston are joined...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: This program features the poems of Louis Jenkins, Hal Sirowitz, Philip Levine, Joy Harjo, Robert Creeley, Brenda Hillman, Robert Hass, and others. In addition, several poets discuss poetry as work and what it's like to share a life of poetry with fellow writers; young winners of a statewide poetry contest read several of their poems; and advice for fledgling poets is offered. Filmed at the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Whether you?re huddled around the campfire, composing an email to a friend, or sitting down to write a novel, storytelling is fundamental to human nature. But as any writer can tell you, the blank page can be daunting. It?s tough to know where to get started, what details to include in each scene, and how to move from the kernel of an idea to a completed manuscript.
Format: moving image
Publisher / Publication Date: 2014
Copies Available at Woodmere
2 available in Adult Non-fiction, Call number: 808.02 WRISummary: Beowulf is the oldest written epic in English literature. In this program, Dr. Robert DiNapoli-teaching fellow in Old and Middle English at the University of Birmingham, England-and Professor John Burrow of Bristol University examine the symbolism and the influence of Christianity in Beowulf and other masterpieces of English and Germanic poetry. The Wanderer, The Seafarer, The Dream of the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: Crime writing and the memoir are highlighted in this volume. In segment one, author/journalist Martin J. Smith shares his knowledge about the differences between mystery, crime, and suspense; how to know if you have a solid concept; and five elements that are necessary for success in a crime-related genre. In segment two, author and former columnist Adair Lara walks viewers through The Arc, an...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: How important is the opening line of a book? Does a writer always have to know what is going to happen next? Where should the line be drawn between historic fact and historical fiction? And what are the particular challenges of writing a biography? Drawing on the expertise of Edvard Radzinsky, Fay Weldon, Anson Cameron, John Lanchester, Nicholas Shakespeare, and other respected authors, this...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Longevity may or may not come from one's family tree-but with the help of science, could it one day be "inserted" into our genes? This program looks at research in genetic modification that might help extend human life spans. Spotlighting recent DNA experiments on the C. elegans worm, the program also describes longevity studies in mice, mollusks, and fungi-all of which shed light on...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: What is poetry, and what place does it have in today's society? In an attempt to answer these questions, two filmmakers stood an old refrigerator on a busy San Francisco street corner, invited passersby to compose poems using magnetic poetry kits, and filmed the intriguing results. Both funny and poignant, this jewel of a program will make a provocative addition to courses on creative writing,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: The Poetry Hall of Fame showcases more than 130 of the world’s best-known poems cleverly performed and artistically interpreted by The First Poetry Quartet and celebrity guests. Simply an incredible collection of great writers and a wonderful journey through great poems. Within these words one may find all the love, joy, hope, fear, enchantment, and humor that is the human spirit.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 1993
View online at AVOD
Summary: As controversy swirls around the issue of same-sex marriage, gay and lesbian couples in North America and abroad are speaking out for the right to marry. Filmed in British Columbia after the legalization of same-sex unions, this program introduces the victorious litigants, who share their views on marriage, religious and political opposition, child adoption, and, most of all, love. Interviews...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Could genetic research stigmatize people who carry a "bad" gene? Could their behavior actually be determined by that gene? If so, then just how free is free will? Moderated by Harvard Law School's Charles Ogletree, this Fred Friendly Seminar scrutinizes social, ethical, and legal issues involving genetic research into undesirable traits such as addiction to alcohol by exploring the relationship...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program looks at the careers and manifold influence of The Los Angeles Science-Fiction League's most famous members: Forrest J. Ackerman, the mainspring of the group, who coined the term "Sci-Fi"; Ray Bradbury, renowned author of The Martian Chronicles and Fahrenheit 451; and Ray Harryhausen, master of stop-motion animation. Extended interviews with all three men and the numerous...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program was filmed at the Biennial Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, where poets gather every two years to read and discuss their work with large audiences of students and fellow poets. In this program, poets Robert Bly, Galway Kinnell, Sharon Olds, Octavio Paz, and William Stafford read and discuss their work. As Robert Bly observes: "Suppose you only knew 15 words. You could still make...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Photographs have the potential to present powerful truths-or to create convincing fictions. This program uses case studies involving Iwo Jima, Elian Gonzalez, and O. J. Simpson to show how images can be manipulated to influence the way viewers perceive events. The ethics of photography and the positive and negative impacts of digital technology, which is steadily eroding the border between...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program features readings and comments by the late Allen Ginsberg. Ginsberg analyzes the poetry of Blake, then reads from his own poems, "Do the Meditation Rock" and "Skeleton. Other poets include Vietnamese-born Le Thi Diem Thuy, Robert Hass, Mark Doty, Marie Howe, and Yusef Komunyakaa. Komunyakaa, Li-Young Lee, Louis Jenkins, and Hass discuss poetic interpretations of personal and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: After the pen and paper have been gathered, what comes next? In this program, Fay Weldon, Janet Evanovich, Richard Ford, Amit Chaudhuri, Isobelle Carmody, and other highly regarded authors share their approaches to launching a story. From how to jumpstart the imagination to deciding whether to write for a specific market, these writers candidly speak their minds-even about the dreaded writer's...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: Like musicians, Lucille Clifton and Mark Doty stress the rhythmic and musical qualities of poems, the former shaping them with economical, everyday language and the latter with language more baroque. In this program, Bill Moyers and the two poets discuss topics such as the weight of racial memory and the encounter between self and history. Readings by Ms. Clifton showcase "Fury-for Mama,"...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program profiles Stanley Kunitz, one of America's leading poets. Kunitz reads his poetry and discusses his work in extensive interviews. "You don't choose the subject [of your poetry]," says Kunitz, "it chooses you. He asserts that poets must aim simply to "be as true as we can to the grain of life. Kunitz also stresses the importance of reading poetry aloud: "It is important to test your...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Her father was an ex-Nazi and alcoholic who clung to his fascist beliefs. For much of her life, she struggled against Nicolae Ceausescu's dehumanizing regime. But no matter how prolonged or alienating her hardships, they never crippled Herta Muller's spirit-and have, in fact, shaped and amplified her astonishing literary output. Commissioned by the Nobel Foundation, this program features...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010