Film majors, and general film enthusiasts, should know about a wonderful series, Conversations with Filmmakers, that the library has added recently to its book collection. Each volume in this series, published by the University Press of Mississippi, includes the collected interviews of a major modern director. The library owns over 30 titles, including those on Pedro Almodovar, Robert Altman, Jane Campion, Terry Gilliam, Spike Lee, Steven Soderbergh, and Lars von Trier. Because each volume includes interviews spanning the creative life of its subject, the reader comes away with a strong sense of the director’s evolving ideas and approaches to his or her craft, as well as an understanding of each creator’s core concerns and values which have endured through the decades. The book on Stanley Kubrick, for example, begins with a 1963 interview soon after the release of Dr. Strangelove, and concludes with a 1987 interview which appeared in Rolling Stone. Each of these compact volumes contains approximately 200 pages; all include an introduction, chronology, filmography, and useful index. Conversations with Filmmakers titles can be found in the PN 1998.3 area of the general (circulating) book stacks.
-Bob Lobe, Library Director
