The Typewriter (In the 21st Century) 2012
Distributed by Janson Media, 88 Semmons Road, Harrington Park, NJ 07640; 201-784-8488
Produced by Christopher Lockett & Gary Nicholson
Directed by Christopher Lockett
DVD, color, 60 min.
Jr. High - General Adult
Technology, Industrial Design, Communication
Date Entered: 11/15/2013
Reviewed by Justin Cronise, D'Youville College, Buffalo, NY and Genesee Community College, Batavia, NYThe Typewriter (In the 21st Century) is the accurately-titled full-length documentary response to the Atlantic story proclaiming the death of typewriters upon the closing of a typewriter factory. More than anything else, this film is a low budget love letter to the machines that pre-cursed the computer keyboard, leaving us the QWERTY legacy and nostalgia for a slower, more elegant, and more deliberate era.
The Typewriter is propelled by interwoven interviews and introduces viewers to the varied community of fans, proponents, and professionals. Outside of the typewriter community, this film will interest individuals who have ever used a typewriter in their life (likely anyone who was born before the 1980s), as well as writers, aspiring authors, and people who enjoy connecting with another era. The jury is out on a typewriter revival but this film, while comparatively bland in the wider documentary market, makes a decent argument for greater appreciation of the finely-engineered machines that will outlive many of the devices that displaced them – and may even find some converts.
The Typewriter (In the 21st Century) seems a touch long-winded, but it is short enough to view in a single sitting in most classrooms, and is recommended for historical technology collections as well as general public, high school, and lower-level undergraduate libraries.