Summary: Born to Chinese immigrant parents into 1950's America, it would be decades before Ms. Tan would come to fully understand how her mother's self-destructive tendencies were rooted in watching her own mother kill herself after being forced into the former marital system of concubinage. This painful family legacy inspired her stories of women without the power to choose their lives. An interweaving...
Format: moving image
Publisher / Publication Date: 2021
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in E-TV DVDs, Call number: DVD E-TV AMYSummary: The brilliant work, personal struggles, and cultural impact of iconic American writers Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams explodes onto the screen in this innovative dual-portrait documentary. Filmmaker Lisa Immordino Vreeland (Love, Cecil, and Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel) masterfully collages a wealth of archival material, including dishy talk show appearances with David Frost and...
Format: moving image
Publisher / Publication Date: 2021
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Documentary DVDs, Call number: DVD DOC TRUSummary: Made up of intimate, revelatory footage of the singular author and poet filmed over the course of five years, Howard Brookner's 1983 documentary about William S. Burroughs (Naked Lunch) was for decades mainly the stuff of legend; that changed when Aaron Brookner, the late director's nephew, discovered a print of it in 2011 and spearheaded a restoration. Includes on-screen appearances by Allen...
Format: moving image
Publisher / Publication Date: 2015
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Documentary DVDs, Call number: DVD DOC BURSummary: Answered Prayers was meant to be Truman Capote's greatest masterpiece, an epic novel of New York City's glittering jet-set society, following his smashing success with Breakfast at Tiffany's and In Cold Blood. Instead, it sparked his downfall. Through access to never-before-heard audio archives and interviews with Capote's friends and enemies, including Dick Cavett, Lauren Bacall, Norman Mailer...
Format: moving image
Publisher / Publication Date: 2021
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Documentary DVDs, Call number: DVD DOC CAPSummary: This incisive and entertaining portrait of American poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti explores his vital role as catalyst for numerous literary careers and for the Beat movement itself. Interviews with Ferlinghetti and others reveal a rich mélange of characters and events that unfolded in postwar America. In 1953 Ferlinghetti opened City Lights Bookstore, which quickly evolved into an iconic...
Format: moving image
Publisher / Publication Date: 2010
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Documentary DVDs, Call number: DVD DOC FERSummary: Flannery O'Connor's distinctive Southern Gothic style influenced a generation of artists and activists. Winner of the first-ever Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film, O'Connor includes conversations with Mary Karr, Hilton Als and others. Through never-before-seen archival footage, examine the life and legacy of an American literary icon.
Format: moving image
Publisher / Publication Date: 2021