Part film directory, part how-to guidebook, this is a cracker of a book for people who work in public libraries and love films. How good is this when your day (library) job is to create and put together a programme of films for screening, lead a film discussion group, invite screen writers or actors (maybe a between-jobs actor) to come along and impress the audience and generally be the envy of your non-library employed friends who work in accounts.
As Kati Irons says, the great thing about her role is the opportunity to create film programmes that reach out to every age and interest group. She has put viewers into categories to make it easier to select films, so we have young children (2–5), children (5–10), tweens (11–13), teens and young adults (14–17), adults (18+) and seniors (65+).
That sorted, she then sets about offering various suggestions for film titles matched to the audiences. Not only does the author seem to possess a wealth of film knowledge going right back to the silent era, but she also displays her knowledge in some invaluable lists – the book is chock full of lists of film organisations, critics, Internet sites, blogs, viewer advisory councils, public performance rights providers and so on. Not only that, there are five comprehensive appendices as guides. They are worth mentioning, as I consider them worth reading, or even buying the book just for these. These are Appendix A: Films Based on Books For Children, Appendix B: Year-round Film Programming Ideas, Appendix C: Films Inspired by Classic Literature, Appendix D: Online Resources, Appendix E: Template for Film Discussion Group Research and Appendix F: Leading a Film Discussion Group.
The book also treats the serious ‘must abide by the rules’ aspects in a straightforward manner, and, as Irons says, the goal of the book is to ‘help shine some light on challenging film programming areas, such as licensing, marketing and equipment’. Thus we learn about what equipment is required, what the correct rules for publicly showing films are, and how to market and promote the screenings.
There are plenty of informative and entertaining nuggets to find as you work your way through the chapters. For example, I love this one: in 2005 the British Film Institute published a list of ‘50 films you should see by the age of fourteen’. This is an interesting mix of older and modern films and includes titles from all over the world. It is probably the only film list that includes Back to the Future, Au Revior les Enfants, Edward Scissorhands and Night of the Hunter. What an array for a curious 14-year-old, or should that be a curious array for a 14-year-old? This book is recommended for librarians with eclectic film tastes.