Documentaries about writers

Writing Life: 29

I’ve written in an earlier post (What being a writer means to me) about my inclination to do things that make me feel more like a writer. Whether it’s gathering around me books about writers and writing, reading writers’ memoirs, or even ordering a T-shirt emblazoned with a QWERTY keyboard on it. I don't think I mentioned in my original post that another manifestation of this tendency is my interest in documentaries about writers. I’ve watched many and am always looking for more. I offer below some thoughts on seven writerly documentaries I’ve enjoyed (and how you can watch them).

Turn Every Page

Click on the image for more information on the film.

Now 87 years old, Robert Caro is one the most respected political historians on the planet. His breakthrough book, The Power Broker, about the life and work of Robert Moses, the legendary infrastructure king of New York, is a landmark work. He followed it with his soon to be five-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson.

The first four volumes of Robert Caro’s masterpiece. A fifth is coming.

This fine documentary is really about the relationship between Robert Caro and his longtime editor, Robert Gottlieb, 91 years old and one of the most important and famous editors in the English speaking world. The film was made by Gottlieb’s daughter Lizzie Gottlieb, and it is wonderful. She uses the imperative of finishing the final volume of the Johnson biography while both author and editor are still with us, as the vehicle for examining how these two titans have worked together for more than fifty years.

I saw this film as part of Toronto’s HotDocs with a buddy of mine, and we both were mesmerized by it from opening frame to closing credits. Here’s the official trailer for Turn Every Page. I loved it, and hope you get a chance to see it.

Of the seven films noted here, this is likely the toughest one to catch. I saw its last showing in Toronto and I don’t think it’s streaming anywhere just yet. But if you can somehow find it, do see it. Beautifully shot and including appearances by Bill Clinton, David Remnick, Ethan Hawke, and many other luminaries.

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Margaret Atwood: A Word after a Word after a Word is Power

You can find this great film on CBC Gem. If you’ve been reading my Substack for a while now, you’ll know that I think the world of Margaret Atwood. It’s still a bit surreal for me to realize that I actually know her and have been lucky enough to spend some time with her. (You can read more about that here.)

This doc is quite recent and well worth watching. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Here’s the trailer:

And if you like the trailer, you can click here to watch the 78 minute film.

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Sincerely F. Scott Fitzgerald

This doc is a BBC production from several years ago, and it’s narrated by the New York novelist, Jay McInerney. I’m not sure the film presents much that we didn’t already know about the sad and reasonably well-documented life of F. Scott Fitzgerald, but it’s very well put together and definitely worth a look, even if it’s covering ground with which you may be familiar. And it’s available on YouTube, and you can click the image below to watch it.

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The Capote Tapes

I’ve been interested in the eventful life of Truman Capote since I read the great biography by Gerald Clarke, simply called Capote, back in the late 1980s. Capote had an extraordinary life and was considered one of the finest writers of his generation—he certainly thought so.

The Capote Tapes is a fine documentary on TVO, based in part on hours of audiotape interviews George Plimpton conducted when researching his biography aptly entitled Truman Capote, published in 1997. Both Capote biographies are wonderful.

Two solid biographies on Truman Capote, one by Gerald Clarke (1988) and the other by George Plimpton (1997).

Capote was quite a polarizing figure in his lifetime, and this film pulls no punches as the famous writer effectively alienates his tightly-knit circle of friends when excerpts from his still unpublished novel, Answered Prayers, were published in Esquire in 1975-76. But what a character, and what a writer.

Here’s the trailer:

The full documentary is available on YouTube below:

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Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am

I confess—with some shame—that I haven’t yet read Toni Morrison, despite her Nobel Prize for Literature. After having watched this great documentary, I’ll definitely be reading Ms Morrison in the not-too-distant future. I really enjoyed the film—found on the CBC Gem app or website. It features several of her friends and other experts including Oprah Winfrey, Robert Gottlieb (yes, the same outstanding editor featured in the Turn Every Page doc that leads this post), Walter Mosley, Hilton Als, Angela Davis, and Fran Lebowitz. Of course, Toni Morrison herself is on screen for a good portion of the film. Well worth checking out. Here’s the official trailer:

Click here to watch the full two-hour doc on Gem.

Hemingway

In 2021, Ken Burns and Lynn Novick released through PBS, a three-part, six-hour documentary on the life of Ernest Hemingway. It is the most comprehensive look at Hemingway ever committed to film. I was glued to my television for all three parts of the film when it originally aired, and then joined PBS so I could have access to the doc whenever I wanted on the PBS app on my iPad. I’ve also recently bought the three-DVD set.

I loved the documentary and was interested in what the erudite experts interviewed had to say about a writer I’ve read so much about. There was also video footage of Hemingway I’d never seen before. For such a famous writer, there is precious little video available. He really didn’t like to be recorded in any way. Here’s the trailer for the documentary:

It is available on the PBS website and app if you become a member (about $60/year) or you can order the DVD (about $35) on Amazon, along with the accompanying book of selected short stories (about $17).

(l) The DVD of the documentary. (r) Selected stories featured in the 3-part film.

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A Literary Figure of Global Format: John Irving

I’ve watched this 2012 German documentary—fear not, it’s in English—on YouTube many times over the years and have enjoyed each viewing. It offers some insight into Irving’s writing process and the international appeal of his works. Here it is on YouTube:

Wrapping up

When I watch these films, or read biographies of writers, I not only learn from them, but, as noted earlier, they simply make me feel more like a writer. After having written nine novels, I think I gain more from watching these films now than I would have before I’d started on my first novel. I now find more connections, more common ground. I learn more from them because of my own writing experiences. I expect I’ll continue to watch documentaries and read books about writers. I just want to.

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Thanks for stopping by. Hope you enjoy some of these films. I sure did. See you next week. Do consider subscribing if you haven't already and sharing this post. it really helps.