Book + Film Club March: Women in Film – Joan Didion
Griffin Dunne
In-Person
Sidewalk Film Center + Cinema
Mar 25
Sidewalk’s Book + Film Club unites movie and book lovers for a monthly film screening. Each session is $35 and the includes book, film screening, and discussion. Select the $15 option for access to the film screening and post film discussion. Dates, descriptions, and registration deadlines below.
Registration Deadline to have books picked up: Friday, March 6th. Books will be mailed within 72 hours of this date.
Registration Deadline to have books picked up: Monday, March 16th. Books can be picked up from our Box Office during our regular operating hours Thursday & Friday from 2pm til Close and on Saturday & Sunday from 10:30am until close.
Book: We Tell Ourselves Stories: Joan Didion and the American Dream Machine
by Alissa Wilkinson
We Tell Ourselves Stories eloquently traces Didion’s journey from New York to her arrival in Hollywood as a screenwriter at the twilight of the old studio system. She spent much of her adult life deeply embroiled in the glitz and glamor of the Los Angeles elite, where she acutely observed―and denounced―how the nation’s fears and dreams were sensationalized on screen. Meanwhile, she paid the bills writing movie scripts like A Star Is Born, while her books propelled her to celestial heights of fame.
Peering through a scrim of celluloid, Wilkinson incisively dissects the cinematic motifs and machinations that informed Didion’s writing―and how her writing, ultimately, demonstrated Hollywood’s addictive grasp on the American imagination. More than a portrait of a writer, We Tell Ourselves Stories shines a new light on a legacy whose impact will be felt for generations.
Film: Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold (2017) dir. Griffin Dunne
Literary icon Joan Didion reflects on her remarkable career and personal struggles in this intimate documentary directed by her nephew, Griffin Dunne.