Sidewalk’s Book + Film Club unites movie and book lovers for a monthly film screening and discussion about famous films and the people who make them. The registration deadline is the first Friday of each month. Books are mailed to participants or available for pick-up at the cinema following this deadline. On the fourth Wednesday of the month, we host a screening of a film related to the book and host a round-table discussion.

Support for Book and Film Club comes from Left Hand Soap Company and the Alabama Arts License Tag Initiative. Please email jessica@sidewalkfest.com with any questions about Book + Film Club!

Each session is $35 – Registration includes book, film screening & discussion

Buy 3+ months at once and get 10% off your registration.

See all of our 2023 Book + Film Club Sessions here.

 

Past Titles:

February: Oscar Micheaux, America’s first Black filmmaker

Book: Oscar Micheaux: The Great and Only: The Life of America’s First Black Filmmaker

Film: Murder in Harlem

 

March: Annie Atkins and the Props of Wes Anderson

Book: Fake Love Letters, Forged Telegrams, and Prison Escape Maps: Designing Graphic Props for Filmmaking Annie Atkins

Film: The Grand Budapest Hotel

 

April: The ’70s

Book: The Seventies: The Decade That Changed American Film Forever

Film: American Graffiti

 

May: Pauline Kael

Book: I Lost it At The Movies

Film: What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael

 

June: Women on Desire in Cinema

Book: She Found it at the Movies: Women Writers on Sex, Desire and Cinema

Film: Set it Off

 

July: Richard Pryor

Book: Furious Cool: Richard Pryor and The World That Made Him

Film: Stir Crazy

 

August: Flash Gordon

Book: Flash Gordon: The Official Story of the Film

Film: Flash Gordon

 

September: John Waters

Book: Shock Value: A Tasteful Book About Bad Taste

Film: Serial Mom

 

October: Wes Craven

Book: Wes Craven: The Man and His Nightmares 

Film: Scream

 

Noirvember: Film Noir

Book: Close-Up on Sunset Boulevard: Billy Wilder, Norma Desmond, and the Dark Hollywood Dream

Film: Sunset Boulevard

January – David Lynch

Book: Lynch on Lynch by Chris Rodley

Film: Mulholland Drive  (dir. David Lynch, 2001)

 

February – Nora Ephron

Book: I’ll Have What She’s Having: How Nora Ephron’s Three Iconic Films Saved the Romantic Comedy by Erin Carlson

Film: When Harry Met Sally… (dir. Rob Reiner, 1989)

 

March – Hitchcock

Book: Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (Cambridge Film Handbooks) by John Belton

Film: Rear Window (dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)

 

April – Prince

Book: Purple Rain: Music on Film Series by John Kenneth Muir

Film: Purple Rain (dir. Albert Magnoli, 1984)

 

May – Ozu Yasujiro

Book: The Cinema of Ozu Yasujiro: Histories of the Everyday by Woojeong Joo

Film: An Autumn Afternoon (dir. Yasujirō Ozu, 1962)

 

June – Do the Right Thing

Book: BFI Film Classics: Do The Right Thing by Ed Guerrero

Film: Do the Right Thing (dir. Spike Lee, 1989)

 

July – Don’t Look Now

Book: BFI Film Classics: Don’t Look Now by Mark Sanderson

Film: Don’t Look Now (dir. Nicolas Roeg, 1973)

 

August – Coraline

Book: Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Film: Coraline (dir. Henry Selick, 2009)

 

September – Twilight

Book: The Twilight Mystique: Critical Essays on the Novels and Films edited by Amy M. Clarke and Marijane Osborn

Film: Twilight (dir. Catherine Hardwicke, 2008)

 

October – Halloween III

Book: The Films of John Carpenter by John Kenneth Muir

Film: Halloween III: Season of the Witch (dir. Tommy Lee Wallace, 1982)

November – John Singleton

Book: John Singleton Interviews, edited by Craigh Barboza

Film: Boyz n the Hood (dir. John Singleton, 1991)

December – Todd Haynes

Book: Todd Haynes: Interviews, edited by Julia Leyda

Film: Carol(dir. Todd Haynes, 2015)

January – Charlie Chaplin

Book: Charlie Chaplin: A Brief Life by Peter Ackroyd

Film: City Lights (dir. Charlie Chaplin, 1931)

 

February – This is Spinal Tap

Book: This is Spinal Tap: Music on Film Series by John Kenneth Muir

Film: This is Spinal Tap (dir. Rob Reiner, 1984)

 

March – Women in Horror (Virtual edition!)

Book: Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in Modern Horror Film by Carol J. Clover

Film: A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (dir. Ana Lily Amirpour, 2014)

 

April – Women’s Work and Old Hollywood (Virtual edition!)

Book: Independent Stardom: Freelance Women in the Studio System by Emily Carman

Film: Double Indemnity (dir. Billy Wilder, 1944)

 

May – Jane Campion (Virtual edition!)

Book: Jane Campion: Authorship and Personal Cinema by Alistair Fox

Film: The Piano (dir. Jane Campion, 1993)

June – Racial Politics and Hollywood (Virtual edition!)

Book: The Hollywood Jim Crow: The Racial Politics of the Movie Industry by Maryann Erigha

Film: The Magnificent Seven (dir. Antoine Fuqua, 2016)

 

July – Christopher Nolan (Virtual edition!)

Book: Christopher Nolan: A Critical Study of the Films

Film: Memento (dir. Christopher Nolan, 2000)

 

August – ’80s Comedy Mavericks

Book: Wild and Crazy Guys: How the Comedy Mavericks of the ’80s Changed Hollywood Forever

Film: Beverly Hills Cop (dir. Martin Brest, 1984)

 

September – Sofia Coppola

Book: Sofia Coppola: The Politics of Visual Pleasure

Film: The Virgin Suicides (dir. Sofia Coppola, 1999)

 

October – The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Book: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Film That Terrified a Rattled Nation

Film: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (dir. Tobe Hooper, 1974)

 

November – Agnes Varda

Book: Cléo de 5 à 7

Film: Cléo de 5 à 7 (dir. Agnes Varda, 1962)

 

December – Christmas Movies!

Book: The Christmas Movie Book

Film: Little Women (dir. Greta Gerwig, 2019)

 

January 2021 – The Fog of War

Book: Believing is Seeing: Observations on the Mysteries of Photography by Errol Morris

Film: The Fog of War (2003, dir. Errol Morris)

 

February 2021 – Howard Hughes

Book: Sex, Lies, and Stardom in Howard Hughes’ Hollywood by Karina Longworth

Film: The Aviator (2004, dir. Martin Scorsese)

 

March 2021 – James Bond

Book: Some Kind of Hero: The Remarkable Story of the James Bonds Films by Matthew Field

Film: Skyfall (2012, dir. Anthony Schatteman)

 

April – Jim Henson

Book: Jim Henson by Brian Jay Jones

Film: The Muppet Movie (1979, dir. James Frawley)

 

May – American Music Documentary

Book: American Music Documentary: Five Case Studies of Cine-Ethnomusicology by Benjamin J. Harbert

Film: Gimme Shelter (1970, dir. Charlotte Zwerin, David Maysles, Albert Maysles)

 

June – Guerrilla Filmmaking

Book: Sweet Sweeback’s Baadasssss Song: A Guerilla Filmmaking Manifesto

Film: Sweet Sweeback’s Baadasssss Song

 

July – Barbara Kopple

Book: Barbara Kopple: Interviews, Edited by Gregory Brown

Film: Harlan County U.S.A. (1976, dir. Barbara Kopple)

 

August – Guillermo del Toro

Book: The Supernatural Cinema of Guillermo del Toro, edited by John W. Morehead

Film: The Devil’s Backbone (2001, dir. Guillermo del Toro)

 

September – Uncovering ’80s Nostalgia

Book: Uncovering Stranger Things: Essays on Eighties Nostalgia, Cynicism and Innocence in the Series, edited by Kevin J. Wetmore, Jr.

Film: E.T. (1982, dir. Steven Spielberg)

 

 October – Get Out

Book: Jordan Peele’s Get Out: Political Horror by Dawn Keetley

Film: Get Out (2017, dir. Jordan Peele)

 

November – New Queer Cinema

Book: New Queer Cinema: A Critical Reader by Michele Aaron

Film: Appropriate Behavior (2014, dir. Desiree Akhavan)

 

December – It’s A Wonderful Life

Book: The Essential It’s a Wonderful Life: A Scene-by-Scene Guide to the Classic Film by Michael Willian

Film: It’s A Wonderful Life (1946, dir. Frank Capra)

 

January: Paul Thomas Anderson

Book: Paul Thomas Anderson: Masterworks

Film: Magnolia

August 21-27, 2023

Sidewalk Film Festival

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