Response to Hollywood Librarian
  So . . . what did you think about the movie? What particular things hit home with you? Were there any surprises? Anything you disagreed with?
  So . . . what did you think about the movie? What particular things hit home with you? Were there any surprises? Anything you disagreed with?
October 6th, 2007 at 8:53 am
I work at Little Turtle Branch. I thought the movie was interesting but not exactly what I thought it was going to be. Yes, it addressed the stereotypes and had some pretty funny scenes from the movies, but it seemed that a lot of the movie was more about getting funding for libraries and about the Salinas problem. Since most of the people in the audience were probably involved with libraries it was pretty much a preaching to the choir situation. I think libraries are the best thing since spice racks and books are certainly what helps keep a society civilized.
I had expected the movie to have more humor and show more scenes from the movies, rather than all the fund raising, since it was billed as Hollywood Librarian. . Still, it was an interesting experience and certainly offered much food for thought. It was great to see Ray Bradbury and the political commentary was pretty pointed.
October 6th, 2007 at 10:35 am
I also thought there would be more about librarians in movies, although I did enjoy the clips that were used.
In case anyone’s interested in knowing, the audience was about 70% librarians so I don’t think the majority of the audience was shocked about the funding issues that were explored. It is nice to see it presented this way though; once the movie is released in theatres and on DVD it will hopefully reach a larger and more diverse audience. It’s one thing to read about problems and issues in letters to the editor, editorials, etc. and another to see it presented in a documentary format. If it’s important enough that someone made a documentary about it, it may get more people’s attention.
And I would love to see more of the Bradbury interview. You can never have too much Ray Bradbury.
October 7th, 2007 at 7:05 pm
I, too, was expecting more movie clips, and was a little disappointed at the political tone of a few of the segments. For people that promote intellectual freedom, the notion that not all librarians think the same way politcally sometimes seemed to be missing.
Overall, though, I enjoyed it and it did make me rather proud to be a librarian! In this age of technology, I’m glad it focused on books and how they changed and keep changing lives. I’m still in shock that Katharine Hepburn’s sister was a librarian. How great is that!
Librarians are great people. Compared to other professions that I encounter, they seem more dedicated, complain less, and enjoy their work more. Not bad!
October 9th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
I saw a “preview” of this in 2003 on Mackinac Island. At that time, the focus was librarians as seen by Hollywood. I think the director lost her focus somewhere along the way and went in a totally different direction. My friends and I were rather disappointed that it turned out so political. After all, WE don’t need to know that we need more funding. And what has that to do with “Hollywood”? The technical aspects of the film were great, but the “Hollywood” part of the “Hollywood Librarian” disappeared fairly quickly. If Ms. Siedl had kept her focus, I think she would have produced a very amusing film.
October 10th, 2007 at 4:50 pm
I could almost feel the mood of the audience change during the more political parts.
It seems to me that the majority of librarians are more liberal but perhaps they are just more vocal than conservatives. I’ve never seen a poll or anything. Hmmm . . . perhaps this would be an interesting topic for a research project/paper?
I would have liked more movie connection too. I was surprised Evie from The Mummy was missing.
Another thing missing was academic librarians. I read somewhere that there were 50+ hours of footage shot and she had to narrow it down from there. Of course, public libraries are used by more people so I can understand why that was her focus.
And I think Mme. Librarian is right about librarians being dedicated and loving their work. This was shown well in the film I thought.
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