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Literature
see all genres ›Movies can't exist without writers (and even documentaries these days often credit scenarists) but the reverse is hardly true. However, these films turn the tables by making scribes the subject of cinematic inquiry.
Discover Literature Films
Genres / Documentary / Literature
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Anne Perry: Interiors
Anne Perry is one of the leading authors of our time. She specializes in crime novels and is famous worldwide but her books hide a very real tale of murder and everlasting regret. Since she was 15 years old, Anne has carried an awful secret, a story of a young murderer forever trying to get beyond her...Start your free trial to watch
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Bukowski at Bellevue
In 1970, Charles Bukowski, then little-known, packed his overnight bag, locked the door of his tumbledown East Hollywood apartment behind him and took his first plane ride to the state of Washington to read at Bellevue Community College. This pioneer reading (only his fourth ever) was videotaped in...Start your free trial to watch
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Commissioner of Sewers
COMMISSIONER OF SEWERS combines interview and archival material, paintings and clips of William S. Burroughs' film appearances (including DECODER and Gus Van Sant's DRUGSTORE COWBOYS and THANKSGIVING PRAYER) with footage from Burroughs' last European reading in Berlin on May 9th, 1986 to create a witty and...Start your free trial to watch
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Hubert Selby Jr: It'll Be Better Tomorrow
Narrated by Robert Downey, Jr. and featuring Lou Reed, Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Darren Aronofsky, Uli Edel, Henry Rollins, Jerry Stahl, Richard Price and Nick Tosches. This documentary is a harrowing and engaging exploration into the life and art of the renowned author Hubert Selby Jr, who, against all...Start your free trial to watch
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Kafka's Last Story
While the world may be eternally grateful to Max Brod for preserving some of the greatest works of 20th century literature and transforming Franz Kafka into a global cultural icon, Kafka himself may be turning in his grave. Kafka’s final wish stated that “all that is left in my estate must be burned...Start your free trial to watch
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Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown
H.P. Lovecraft was the forefather of modern horror fiction, having inspired such writers as Stephen King and Robert Bloch. The influence of his Cthulhu mythos can be seen in films, games, music and pop culture in general. But what led an Old World, xenophobic gentleman to create one of literature's most...Start your free trial to watch
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$100 and a T-shirt
In just under an hour, $100 AND A T-SHIRT brings zine culture to life! Using broken and borrowed equipment, filmmaker Joe Biel illuminates the world of self-publishing. He gives us glimpses of a Zine Symposium, takes us on a zine-themed bicycle tour around Portland and interviews local zinesters. This...Start your free trial to watch
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Otto Frank, Father of Anne
After returning from Auschwitz, Otto Frank, the only survivor of the family, is confronted with Anne's diary. He renews ties with his daughter by reading it. The film tells the story of what he went through, how the loss of his family scarred his life, how he dealt with the dilemmas that the publication of...Start your free trial to watch
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Paris Was a Woman
A film portrait of the creative community of women writers, artists, photographers and editors (including Colette, Djuna Barnes, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas) who flocked to the Left Bank of Paris in the early decades of the 20th century. Utilizing groundbreaking research and newly discovered home...Start your free trial to watch
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Patience (After Sebald)
Retracing the steps taken by W.G. Sebald (1944–2001) in his ground-breaking book ‘The Rings of Saturn’, PATIENCE (AFTER SEBALD) offers a unique exploration of the work and influence of the internationally acclaimed writer. Directed by Grant Gee (RADIOHEAD: MEETING PEOPLE IS EASY, JOY DIVISION), the film...Start your free trial to watch
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Paul Goodman Changed My Life
Paul Goodman was once so ubiquitous in the American zeitgeist that he merited a cameo in Woody Allen’s ANNIE HALL. Author of legendary bestseller "Growing Up Absurd" in 1960, Goodman was also a poet, 1940s out queer (and family man), pacifist, visionary, co-founder of Gestalt therapy and a moral compass...Start your free trial to watch
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Shakespeare High
Executive produced by Kevin Spacey, SHAKESPEARE HIGH is an inspiring documentary that follows a diverse group of California high school students as they prepare for and compete in an annual Shakespeare Festival, a program that counts many of Hollywood's biggest stars among its alumni.Start your free trial to watch
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Uncommon Vision
Morgan Atkinson's fascinating documentary reviews the complex, dramatic life of white Texan John Howard Griffin who, in 1959, famously "passed" as black to expose society's treatment of African Americans. But that incendiary journalistic coup was hardly the only dramatic chapter in his life, which also included Parisian...Start your free trial to watch
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Words of Advice
In 1983, the counter culture icon and author of the cult classic NAKED LUNCH (published in 1959), William S. Burroughs (1914-1997) traveled throughout Scandinavia making a series of personal appearances. Twenty years later, filmmakers Lars Movin and Steen Møller Rasmussen found never-before-seen footage of his Copenhagen...Start your free trial to watch
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Writer of O
Published in Paris in 1954, "Story of O" was an immediate bestseller and literary scandal: an elegantly written S&M fantasy that had all the hallmarks of being an autobiographical account by the pseudonymous Pauline Réage. In 1994, Dominique Aury, a mild-mannered editor for France's prestigious Gallimard press, revealed her...Start your free trial to watch