Documentary | Hollywood Librarian

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Documentary | Hollywood Librarian: "The Hollywood Librarian: Librarians in Cinema and Society, now in production, will be the first full-length film to focus on the work and lives of librarians in the entertaining and appealing context of American movies. American film contains hundreds of examples of librarians and libraries on screen -- some positive, some negative, some laughable and some dead wrong. Films such as Sophie's Choice, Philadelphia and It's a Wonderful Life show librarians as negative stereotypes. The librarians in Lorenzo's Oil, Desk Set and The Shawshank Redemption, on the other hand, are competent and professional. Dozens of interviews of real librarians will be interwoven with movie clips of cinematic librarians and serve as transitions between the themes of censorship, intellectual freedom, children and librarians, pay equity and funding issues, and the value of reading.

As the film unfolds, we will see the dedicated children's librarian running a story time program for toddlers and their parents. We will meet cataloguers who work behind the scenes to make materials, both in print and on the computer, accessible to people. We will talk with a library researcher whose studies reveal the crucial link between the presence of school librarians and the level of test scores. We will show the challenges faced by library directors in the face of shrinking financial support and increased materials costs. We will encounter older librarians who have witnessed the explosion of technology and younger librarians, who were born into the information age. We will travel to large library systems with dozens of staff and visit small libraries with one librarian working alone.

The filmmakers will also interview actors such as Tim Robbins and Goldie Hawn who have played librarians on screen, as well as screenwriters and directors who have included library themes in their movies (for example, Gary Ross, writer and director of Pleasantville). The Hollywood Librarian will be a unique blend of film clips, humor and critical analysis of the popular image of librarians. It will create a new-found empathy for the profession by revealing the diversity of individual librarians and the importance of what they do. This film will increase the public's awareness of the complex and democratic nature of librarianship in the age of technology, and be a step toward librarians redefining themselves as not only more than a stereotype, but also as a cultural imperative."