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AN INTIMATE PORTRAIT OF ONE OFAMERICA’S GREATEST — AND MOST CONTROVERSIAL LIVING WRITERS
HARLAN ELLISON:
DREAMS WITH SHARP TEETH
“A NASTY LITTLE DREAM COME TRUE” – The New Yorker
New York, NY April, 2009 – Timed for DVD release one day before the 75th birthday of the great man himself, HARLAN ELLISON: DREAMS WITH SHARP TEETH pays homage to one of our most celebrated authors—the dark prince of American letters. Director Erik Nelson (producer of Grizzly Man) affectionately captures the remarkable personal journey of this wildly imaginative writer, flame-tongued provocateur, and unholy fusion of Lenny Bruce and Mark Twain. Docurama Films is proud to bring this revealing portrait to DVD—with over 80 minutes of exclusive extras—on May 26, 2009, one day after its premiere on the Sundance Channel.
Master of his craft, Ellison has heroically produced over 75 books and more than 1700 classics of fiction and non-fiction on one of his Olympia manual typewriters, including the single most popular Star Trek episode (“City on the Edge of Forever”) and brilliant, award-winning short stories, some written in bookstore windows, on very public display.
The film, deemed “simply a great piece of work” by The Hollywood Reporter, draws on over 25 years of interviews conducted by the film’s director that capture Ellison at his most inspiring and irritating, curmudgeonly and lovable. See Ellison rant about the idiocies of geekdom, confess to mailing a dead gopher to an executive at a publishing house, recall his tortuous childhood, and speak about the joy (and craft) of writing. The film also features candid conversations with famous and surprising friends, including actor Robin Williams, author Neil Gaiman and Ron Moore (Battlestar Galactica ), who flesh out Ellison’s prodigious contributions to the worlds of literature and popular culture, as well as their very personal encounters with this unique Force of Nature. Whether a die-hard Ellison fan or someone tragically uninitiated, HARLAN ELLISON: DREAMS WITH SHARP TEETH will amuse, inspire, infuriate, and edify. Nathan Lee of the New York Times proclaimed, “Mr. Ellison’s written achievement largely takes second stage to his volcanic verbal attitude, of which there’s more than enough to overflow an entire outlandish miniseries.”
Ellison on DREAMS WITH SHARP TEETH:
“I’ve been busy living my life, and I always have. And the film is very specific about me constantly saying, ‘I am responsible for myself. I am exactly who I eventually wanted myself to be, I guess, without consciously knowing what I wanted me to be.’ And when I look at the film, it’s like an out-of-body experience. It puts me in mind of the scene in Tom Sawyer where Tom and Huck are supposedly drowned, and they sneak back into the loft of the church during the funeral for their drowned bodies, and they hear everybody saying all these wonderful things about them. And I get that same feeling, that it’s not so much me as it is this funny weird old guy, Harlan Ellison. And I watch the movie and I laugh, ’cause it’s a funny film, and I say, ‘That’s a funny guy! I’d love to have lunch with him sometime.’”
OVER 80 MINUTES OF BONUS MATERIAL INCLUDES:
6 short story excerpts read and performed by Harlan Ellison
“Pizza with Mr. Ellison and Mr. Gaiman”—50 minutes of very intimate conversation between these two writing legends
“An Evening With Sharp Teeth”—a short film documenting the film’s explosive premiere
About Docurama Films®
Docurama Films is dedicated to making critically acclaimed and cutting-edge documentaries available digitally and on DVD. The collection unites both classic and contemporary docs from award-winning filmmakers whose work continues to astound and enlighten. Since being launched by parent company New Video in 1999, Docurama Films has released over 250 award-winning and highly acclaimed titles. This year we celebrate our 10th anniversary of great docs. Among our releases for 2009: Academy Award®-winning director James Moll’s hauntingly profound film Inheritance; a moving portrait of Estonia’s fight for freedom in The Singing Revolution; and Stacy Peralta’s gripping Crips and Bloods: Made in America.
Films in the library include the Academy Award®-winning Murder on a Sunday Morning, Marjoe and Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision. In addition, Docurama Films specializes in definitive films like D.A. Pennebaker’s seminal work Bob Dylan: Dont Look Back and The Brandon Teena Story (the true story behind the Oscar®-winning movie Boys Don’t Cry), as well as films of enormous sociocultural relevance including Hacking Democracy and the Academy Award® nominee Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience. Docurama Films has also released the critically acclaimed The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill and Andy Goldsworthy’s Rivers and Tides. In 2007, Docurama Films had its exciting first theatrical release with Air Guitar Nation, and in 2008, release highlights included Gypsy Caravan with Johnny Depp, the fun and engrossing expose King Corn, and the Emmy Award-winning Autism: The Musical.
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HARLAN ELLISON: DREAMS WITH SHARP TEETH – DVD
Pre-order date: April 28, 2009
Street date: May 26, 2009
Genre: Documentary, Color
Sug. Retail Price: $26.95
Rating: N/A
Running Time: 99 mins + extras
Catalog #: NNVG154121
