"Stone Reader", a film by Mark Moskowitz

[Zlatko Waterman]

All:


I'd like to recommend you try watching Mark Moskowitz's film, "Stone Reader."


( web site)

http://www.stonereader.net/


In spite of Moskowitz's somewhat "pushy" manner at times during the film, his eye and his skill as an interviewer and storyteller come through, and I found myself saying, a third into the film, "I was wrong. He's passionately, even magically enchanted with his quest and his "prey." That alone, since he's pursuing the same thing I've pursued all these years, makes this film worth watching."

Moskowitz shows us, in dramatic form, one reader's "obsession" with finding the story behind the book that has charmed him.

I received "Stone Reader" as a Christmas gift from my wife, the person who knows me best. She was right to believe it would interest me, and watching Moskowitz wind his way through the labyrinth of associates and editors and agents who brought "The Stones of Summer" into being, ending with the discovery of its elusive author, is certainly worthwhile.

Reviewers on Amazon.com complain, either of Mark Moskowitz's "pushy Easterner" manner or of the inclusion of footage featuring his pastoral, comfortable upper-middle class home and his charming, inquisitive children. Someone also complained that the scene in which MM's son receives a Harry Potter book, tears open the wrapper and begins to read, was staged.

Of course it was staged. But so are many incidents in documentary films, to make a point emphatically.

Perhaps you can rent "Stone Reader" from a local vid-rent store. You can here in Southern California.

Give it a try. It's a rather original self-portrait, and a skillful cinematic exploration of how authors inhabit us, in spite of ourselves.


Zlatko

[lescaret]

Zlatko, you've mentioned this film to me a few times, I'm looking forward to seeing it .... and discussing it with you person-to-person in southern California (perhaps over a hotly-spiced burrito at Chuy's).

I've always enjoyed documentary films anyway, perhaps the first I was exposed to came in a progressive high school class I had on Vietnam, they showed the documentary "Hearts and Minds" and I was hooked.

Hmmm, think I'll start a movie thread on documentaries .....