“Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin” (April 4)

Published: April 1st, 2019

Category: News

The first U.S. college campus screening of the feature documentary exploring the life and legacy of the groundbreaking science fiction and fantasy author.


April 4, 2019, 3:30–6:30 PM

Smathers Library, Room 100

University of Florida

 

Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin is a feature documentary exploring the remarkable life and legacy of the late feminist author Ursula K. Le Guin. Best known for groundbreaking science fiction and fantasy works such as A Wizard of Earthsea, The Left Hand of Darkness, and The Dispossessed, Le Guin defiantly held her ground on the margin of “respectable” literature until the sheer excellence of her work, at long last, forced the mainstream to embrace fantastic literature. Her fascinating story has never before been captured on film.

Produced with Le Guin’s participation over the course of a decade, Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin is a journey through the writer’s career and her worlds, both real and fantastic. Viewers will join the writer on an intimate journey of self-discovery as she comes into her own as a major feminist author, opening new doors for the imagination and inspiring generations of women and other marginalized writers along the way. The film features stunning animation and reflections by literary luminaries including Margaret Atwood, Neil Gaiman, David Mitchell, Michael Chabon, and more.

Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin was created with the generous support of the National Endowment for the Humanities, California Humanities, the Berkeley Film Foundation, and 3,185 backers on Kickstarter.

A Q & A with the film’s director, Arwen Curry, will follow the screening.

 

About the director

Filmmaker Arwen Curry worked with the author for ten years to create Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin. She served as Associate Producer and Archivist of the PBS American Masters film EAMES: The Architect and the Painter, and associate-produced both American Jerusalem: Jews and the Making of San Francisco, and the acclaimed HBO film Regarding Susan Sontag. Arwen associate-produced five 30-minute science and technology documentaries for San Francisco’s PBS/NPR member station KQED between 2012 and 2014, on subjects ranging from reawakening extinct species to the new era of space exploration. Arwen’s short documentary “Stuffed” took viewers into the lives and homes of compulsive hoarders to better understand our connection to the things we own. Arwen is a former chief editor of the seminal punk magazine Maximum Rocknroll and has written for print, radio, and film. She is a San Francisco Bay Area native and a graduate of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.


This event is free and open to the public. No advance registration is required.


Sponsored by the UF Department of English and the George A. Smathers Libraries Special and Area Studies Collections.

 

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