Grace Paley: Collected Shorts - a Film by Lilly Rivlin

Grace Paley
(1922 - 2007)

Grace Paley: Collected Shorts is a visual parallel of Grace Paley's life and writings revealed in colorful shorts and told in her own voice.

Her life was extraordinary. She was a firebrand on the front line of protest (imdb). With her Bronx rough-around-the-edges accent Grace Paley opposed for all her life war and nuclear proliferation, and fought for the rights of women. She went often to jail for her political attitude. Her work (short stories, poems, essays) was translated in 92 languages. For Enormous Changes at the Last Minute she has been compared to Chekhov. Says Lilly Rivlin, Grace was a New York icon who captured the essence of the city she loved. I would add, she captured the essence of the extraordinary times she lived.

another photo of Grace Paley

The movie will have its world premier at the Castro, July 25, 11 am, and the Roda Theatre (Berkeley Rep Theatre) at August 1, at 12 noon. I will miss the chance to be in the attendance and this is unfortunate, because I know very well the wonderful personality of the filmmaker, Lilly Rivlin. She is courageous in all her movies, and each of them is interesting and relevant.

Now, there is another fact for which I should not have missed this film: Wolfgang Held is the Director of Photography (and it would be a great experience to watch all his movies!). The film editing is done by Pola Rapaport.

(movie trailer: video by Lilly Rivlin)

(Lilly Rivlin)

(Grace Paley)

(Wolfgang Held)

(Pola Rapaport)