“Salinger” – the Documentary Film on the Notoriously Reclusive Author

“Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven by some demon.”

– J.D. Salinger

*

Despite an all-star ensemble interviewed to bear on the life of J.D. Salinger, the author himself would probably wince (to put it mildly) at a documentary film probing into his life and work.  Salinger, who died in 2010, fiercely guarded his privacy.  To say I understand his attitude towards the limelight could insinuate that I have some experience with which to empathize.  I do not; I’m not a best-selling author hounded by the press.  But I can fantasize that Salinger’s reluctance for the spotlight has something to do with an attitude I share with the man who crafted Holden Caulfield – that the world, with its million eyes and crushing hug, inevitably runs the risk of destroying what it cherishes.  And that a writer, properly tortured, wants no part of it.

But what do I know.

The film is set for limited release September 6th.

*

*

New Film Article on Director Mark Covino

“Years after his own mother tried to kill him, Mark Covino went on to make an award winning film about “Death.”

That is, Death: the 1970s punk trio from Detroit who found surprising success years after they disbanded, not Death: the inevitable result of the temporal condition called Life.

The documentary has been a festival sensation this past year and was picked up for distribution by Drafthouse Films during the Los Angles Film Fest.

I was a programmer at the 2013 Lake Placid Film Forum and worked to get A Band Called Death into the line-up.  Mark worked hard to do that, too – the distributors were afraid the film would be over-screened before its release two weeks later.  But Mark was able to convince them, since Lake Placid is a special place to him.

He’d been there before…”

READ MORE>>

*

*

*