Film: Worlds Of Ursula K. Le Guin

dir. Arwen Curry | 68 min | 2018

Screening will be preceded by a Le Guin reading and commentary on the legacy of the the late writer by Maine-based science fiction and fantasy writer Alex Irvine.

With a decade of revealing interviews with groundbreaking fantasy novelist Ursula K. Le Guin (1928-2018), Curry’s film also combines animation and reflections by literary luminaries including prominent writers Michael Chabon (who summers in Maine), Margaret Atwood, Neil Gaiman, and others to celebrate her radical legacy of futuristic thinking. Le Guin’s career and writing expanded thinking about gender and the artistic merits of fantasy and sci-fi genres.

Best-known for groundbreaking science fiction and fantasy works such as A Wizard of Earthsea, The Left Hand of Darkness, and The Dispossessed, Ursula K. Le Guin defiantly held her ground on the margin of “respectable” literature until the sheer excellence of her work, at long last, forced the mainstream to embrace fantastic literature. Her fascinating story has never before been captured on film. Produced with Le Guin’s participation over the course of a decade, Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin is a journey through the writer’s career and her worlds, both real and fantastic — an intimate journey of self-discovery as she comes into her own as a major feminist author, opening new doors for the imagination and inspiring generations of women and other marginalized writers along the way.