Great Women Writers: Rita Dove, S.E. Hinton, and Maya Angelou 1999
Distributed by Films Media Group, PO Box 2053, Princeton, New Jersey 08543-2053; 800-257-5126
Produced by Hacienda Productions/Channel One Communication Corporation. "Maya Angelou" produced by Heidi Schulman; "S.E. Hinton" produced by Colin O'Neill; and "Rita Dove" produced by Aline Alegra
Director n/a
VHS, color, 24 min.
High School - Adult
Literature, Women's Studies, Gender Studies, African American Studies, Adolescence
Date Entered: 11/09/2018
Reviewed by Debra Mandel, Head, Media Center, Northeastern University Libraries, Boston, MAGreat Women Writers is a brief, well-packaged, talk-show style program about three important contemporary American writers and poets. Two young white women provide opening remarks and introduce the separate segments about Rita Dove, S.E. Hinton, and Maya Angelou. The three segments are stylistically different from one another, and vividly capture each writer's honesty and warmth. Overall, this program will work best in junior high and high school classes discussing these authors, and may also serve basic research interests for writing and literature students. For any public library or academic collection which includes interviews of American writers to supplement their works, this video is recommended. It is not essential for more scholarly, upper level collections.
In the first segment, Rita Dove, America's youngest Poet Laureate of the Library of Congress, 1993-1995, engagingly articulates the wellsprings of her creative powers: her childhood passion for words and literature; the influences of her 11th grade English teacher; and the creative synergy between her cello playing and love for language. Photos, music, interview format, and filmed segments weave a moving personal portrait of this compelling African American poet and professor.
In the second segment, S.E. Hinton, renowned fiction writer for adolescents, reveals her sensitivity and wisdom. The format is partially "Q & A," and Hinton masterfully responds to videotaped questions about her craft from teenagers around the country. Hinton frankly talks about her tomboy youth and the peer pressure she experienced and expressed so realistically in works such as The Outsiders and Rumple Fish. She also converses well with an off-screen narrator about her adolescent publicity experiences and her son's coming of age.
Maya Angelou, prominent African American poet and writer, has the briefest, perhaps most lyrical segment on this program. Angelou speaks eloquently about the rhythm and expressiveness of words and the importance of using a rainbow of styles in one's conversation. Her voice and cadence celebrate the power of human expression.
This videotape can be used for courses in the following subject areas: Adolescence; Gender Studies (Hinton); African American Studies (Dove and Angelou); Literature; and Women's Studies (Dove, Hinton, and Angelou).