LitFilm Festival Returns

LitFilm - the popular festival about writers - returns with a FREE virtual series of films and documentaries about such diverse writers as Hanna Arendt, August Wilson and Truman Capote.

LitFilm, now in its fourth year, is presented by the Brooklyn Public Library, Sept. 20-26, and includes live on-line introductions by renowned filmmakers..

The 2021 film festival includes filmd and documentaries on Isabel Allende, Hannah Arendt, Truman Capote, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Ernest Hemingway, Carlos Marighella, Jill and N. Scott Momaday, Flannery O’Connor, Amy Tan, Tennessee Williams, August Wilson, and more.
he festival’s keynote talk will be delivered by renowned filmmaker Lynn Novick on making literary documentaries, filmmaking partnerships and more.

Director Sam Pollard discusses August Wilson and his latest work. Plus,

Jill and M Scott Momaday present Jill’s intimate memoir-film based on her dad’s book, The Return to Rainy Mountain.

All screenings are free but require reservations.

Here are some highlights:

August Wilson: The Ground On Which I Stand

The first documentary about the Tony- and Pulitzer-winning playwright August Wilson traces his influences, creative evolution, struggles and triumphs. Unprecedented access to his theatrical archives, rarely seen interviews and dramatic readings bring to life his seminal 10-play cycle chronicling a century of African-American experience (including Fences and The Piano Lesson).

Film and theater luminaries such as Viola Davis, Laurence Fishburne, James Earl Jones, Suzan-Lori Parks, and Phylicia Rashad share their life-changing experience of bringing Wilson’s rich theatrical voice to the stage.

This film will be followed by a talkback with director Sam Pollard.

Tuesday, Sept. 21
Register here.

Vita Activa: The Spirit of Hannah Arendt

An Israeli/Canadian film about the German-Jewish philosopher known for her writings into the nature of evil, totalitarianism, ideologies, and the perils faced by refugees, now more relevant than ever. \

One of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century, Hannah Arendt caused an uproar in the 1960s by coining the subversive concept of the “Banality of Evil” when referring to the trial of Adolph Eichmann, which she covered for the New Yorker magazine.

Her private life was no less controversial thanks to her early love affair with the renowned German philosopher and Nazi supporter Martin Heidegger.

This thought provoking and spirited documentary, with its abundance of archival materials, offers an intimate portrait of the whole of Arendt’s life, traveling to places where she lived, worked, loved, and was betrayed, as she wrote about the open wounds of modern times.

Through her books, which are still widely read and the recent release of Margarethe von Trotta’s biopic Hannah Arendt (also a Zeitgeist Films release) there is renewed interest in Arendt throughout the world, especially among young people who find her insights into the nature of evil, totalitarianism, ideologies, and the perils faced by refugees, more relevant than ever.

Wednesday, Sept. 22
Register here

The Booksellers

Go inside the fascinating world of Antiquarian booksellers, populated by an assortment of obsessives, intellectals, eccentrics and dreamers.

Both a loving celebration of book culture and a serious exploration of the future of books, the film also examines technology’s impact on the trade, the importance of books as physical objects, the decline of used and rare bookstores, and the relentless hunt for the next great find.

Narrated by Parker Posey, the film features interviews with Fran Lebowitz, Susan Orlean, Kevin Young and more