Library City: Practicing Curiosity: Films

Illustrates the rich history and variety once contained within the lost libraries of Timbuktu and hypothesizes on the state of an Africa in which these libraries weren't driven underground by colonizing interests. Through interviews with local scholars and experts across Africa and the Western world, viewers learn of the impact these historical treasures have on the world-wide understanding of Africa, Islam, and the development of literacy outside of the Western tradition.

In the eighth and ninth centuries, Irish artists created the Gospel of Colum Cille, an intricately decorated edition of the Bible's four Gospels, now regarded as one of the great artistic treasures of the Western world. Using high-definition video to showcase the impressive work, this compelling documentary tells the story behind the tome that many scholars call the most beautiful book in history, which now resides in Trinity College in Dublin.

Independents is a documentary film by Chris Brandt that explores the creative process and the artistic spirit. It is narrated by James C. Kaufman, and features interviews with over two dozen comic book creators, including Robert Williams, Kevin Eastman, Eric Powell, and Wendy Pini.

This film tells the story of master book designer and illustrator Barry Moser and his visually stunning, intensely personal interpretation of Western Civilization's central text. It's a film about typography, illustration, paper, printing and binding, as one of the greatest living practitioner of the book arts scales his Everest.

n 1972, Mark Moskowitz, then 18, read John Seelye's review of The Stones of Summer in The New York Times Book Review and immediately bought a copy. He bogged down less than a hundred pages in and gave up, finally giving the yellowed paperback another pass in 1998. On that reading, the book struck a chord, and he saw why it was so rapturously received. Looking for more, Moskowitz did a search for Mossman works produced between 1972 and 1998--and found nothing. So he set out to find Mossman, pursuing countless dead ends, talking to critics, agents, book designers, and editors, none of whom had answers.

Two classic Book Arts Press Publications remastered on one region-free DVD: The Anatomy of a Book: Part I: Format in the Hand-Press Period and The Making of a Renaissance Book.

Through interviews with writers, artists, paper makers, printers, and curators, this film describes the history and production of contemporary fine art bookmaking, or livres d'artistes.