xtrasBook + Film Club March: Women in Film - Joan Didion
Sidewalk’s Book + Film Club unites movie and book lovers for a monthly film screening. Each session is $35 and the includes book, film screening, and discussion. Select the $15 option for access to the film screening and post film discussion. Dates, descriptions, and registration deadlines below.
- Barbra Streisand, Kris Kristofferson, Gary Busey
- Frank Pierson
- John Gregory Dunne, Joan Didion, Frank Pierson
- 1976
- United States of America
- 139 minutes
- R
Registration Deadline to have books mailed: Friday, March 6th. Books will be mailed within 72 hours of this date.
Registration Deadline to have books picked up: Monday, March 16th. Books can be picked up from our Box Office during our regular operating hours Thursday & Friday from 2pm til Close and on Saturday & Sunday from 10:30am until close. You will receive an email when your book is ready to be picked up.
Book: We Tell Ourselves Stories: Joan Didion and the American Dream Machine
by Alissa Wilkinson
We Tell Ourselves Stories eloquently traces Didion’s journey from New York to her arrival in Hollywood as a screenwriter at the twilight of the old studio system. She spent much of her adult life deeply embroiled in the glitz and glamor of the Los Angeles elite, where she acutely observed―and denounced―how the nation’s fears and dreams were sensationalized on screen. Meanwhile, she paid the bills writing movie scripts like A Star Is Born, while her books propelled her to celestial heights of fame.
Peering through a scrim of celluloid, Wilkinson incisively dissects the cinematic motifs and machinations that informed Didion’s writing―and how her writing, ultimately, demonstrated Hollywood’s addictive grasp on the American imagination. More than a portrait of a writer, We Tell Ourselves Stories shines a new light on a legacy whose impact will be felt for generations.
Film: A Star is Born (1976) dir. Frank Pierson
Has-been singing idol John Norman Howard falls in love with young, up-and-coming songstress Esther Hoffman in Frank Pierson's version of the classic love story updated to the rock and roll era.
About Sidewalk Film Center + Cinema
We produce the nationally recognized Sidewalk Film Festival; organize a wide variety of educational programs for filmmakers and hold other events that create interest in and enthusiasm for independent film. To expand on this work and better serve our mission we have opened the Sidewalk Film Center + Cinema, a two-screen independent movie theater in the heart of Birmingham’s historic theatre district.