KPFA Co-Presents What She Said: Pauline Kael with the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival this summer. The festival takes place July 18 – August 4th. Click HERE for showtimes and Locations of What She Said.
Rob Garver | USA | Documentary | 95 min
Official Selection: 2019 Berlinale Film Festival
Pauline Kael (1919-2001) was likely the most powerful, and personal, movie critic of the 20th century. Writing for The New Yorker and publishing a dozen best-selling books, she ruthlessly pursued what made a movie or an actor’s performance work, or not, and why. Her passion made her both admired and despised amongst her readers.
2019 marks Pauline Kael’s centenary, and what better way to honor her extraordinary life than through the art form she loved with such fervor? In this fantastic documentary, we take a peek into not only 20th century movie culture through her writing, but are also shown Pauline’s life through the very movies she wrote about so passionately. Featuring new interviews with Paul Schrader, David Edelstein, David O. Russell, Quentin Tarantino, and Alec Baldwin, and with Sarah Jessica Parker lending her voice to read Kael’s personal writings and letters, WHAT SHE SAID: THE ART OF PAULINE KAEL is a remarkable love letter to one of the most influential voices of American film writing in the 20th century.
Rob Garver (Director): A New York-based writer and filmmaker, he has written, directed and edited several short films that have been screened in local New York cinemas, and on cable TV, including The Man In the Yellow Cap, a comic narrative film and Two Roads From Belfast, Maine, a short drama. He also created Comic Belief, a documentary profile of cartoonist Dan Piraro. Additionally, his humor and fiction have been published in Collier’s and Instigatorzine. His illustrated humor may be seen at greenbeanshumor.com.