My Weekend Documentary Immersion

 Author and editor back in the day, above, and below, now. 

Images from SonyClassics.com.

I love a good documentary, strung together from close-up views, pearls of truth, about real life. And I love that our town is home to Montclair Film*, which runs the nonprofit Clairidge Theater on Bloomfield Avenue. Last night, when Dan was out with our friend Michael at an event, I slipped out to the 6:30 p.m. showing of “Turn Every Page.”

TEP explores the 50-year relationship between New Yorkers Bob Caro (now age 87, celebrated, diligent author of The Power Broker and the fat Lyndon Johnson biography volumes) and his editor, legendary Bob Gottlieb, now 91, who has edited John Cheever, Doris Lessing, Salman Rushdie, Michael Crichton, Toni Morrison, Nora Ephron and other stellar writers. (He was also editor in chief of The New Yorker.) The film is directed by Lizzie Gottlieb, Bob’s daughter, with a warmth, candor and permission to be curious that only a daughter can have with her dad.

I resisted the brownie bites from local Little Daisy Bake Shop and the rich, silken dark chocolate-covered almonds from Sweet Home Montclair at the concession stand, and slipped into my comfortable seat in the renovated theater. To see two geniuses talking about their crafts, immersed in their crafts, to actually see how they work and see their edits on the paper pages. SO GOOD. To learn about their backgrounds--what made them who they are. What shaped them. It is just delicious. 

It’s a tribute to the golden days of publishing, and to the old-fashioned, hard-driven craft of writing. (Caro still writes on an electric typewriter.) It is purely brilliant and, like the best documentaries, it peels back the velvet movie-theater curtains to show us what we really crave: true stories.  

And then, Sunday morning at the movies! I usually go to my support group or Mass, or sometimes both on a Sunday morning. Today I drove to the former and stayed only 25 minutes and went to the church of the cinema with Dan. We saw the 10:45 a.m. showing of the five Oscar-nominated documentary shorts, and we were blown away. The list included:

1. “How Do You Measure a Year?” (Dad interviews daughter every year on her birthday, from age 2 to 18.)
2. “The Elephant Whisperers,” about a couple who rehabilitates orphaned elephants in India. Click now to watch on Netflix. Required viewing.
3. “Haulout,” about the effects of global warming on walruses in Siberia, by focusing on a marine biologist who works alone in their midst.
4. “Stranger at the Gate,” about a man who killed many Muslims in the war and then lived in Muncie, Indiana with a shocking plan for the local mosque.
5. “The Martha Mitchell Effect,” about the blonde firecracker who was married to Nixon’s attorney general, John Mitchell.

I can’t say enough about these. But our favorite was the elephants....so, so good. Breathtaking subjects and breathtaking filming. And after that, it was Martha.

Such fun at the movies.

*Per Wikipedia: Montclair Film is a nonprofit most well known for organizing the annual Montclair Film Festival (MFF) usually held in late April, early May in Montclair, NJ. The festival showcases new works from American and international filmmakers, and has year-round events.

Notable advisory board members include J.J. Abrams, Jonathan Alter, Stephen Colbert, Abigail Disney, Olympia Dukakis, Chiwetal Ejiofor, Emma Freud, Laura Linney, Jon Stewart, Julie Taymor, and Patrick Wilson, among others.  

(I have seen Patrick Wilson getting healthy green juices in town and Stephen Colbert at Mass.)