'Lit/Film Quarterly' Editors Pen 'Conversations With Directors'

SALISBURY, MD---From the classics of Frank Capra to the foreign films of Federico Fellini to the “New Hollywood” movies of Robert Altman, the editors of Salisbury University’s Literature/Film Quarterly have seen—and heard—it all.

Celebrating the 35th year of the internationally read journal—the oldest of its kind in the United States—current editors Elsie Walker and Dave Johnson of SU’s English Department recently compiled the publication’s best interviews in the new book Conversations With Directors.

Published by Scarecrow Press, the book includes interviews from the 1970s through today, with new introductions for each written by Walker and Johnson to place the information within the context of its time. The editors also reflect on what’s happened to the directors—and their films—since the original interviews were conducted. Also included are interviews conducted by the editors themselves.

The book features some 26 directors, including Capra, Fellini, Altman, Billy Wilder, Franco Zeffirelli, Robert Wise, Eric Rohmer, Louis Malle, William Friedkin, John Schlesinger, Martha Coolidge, Patricia Rozema, Richard Linklater and Baz Luhrmann, among others. Each discusses recurring issues in film including auteurism, realism, editing, cinematography, soundtracks, budgets, documentary versus narrative film, mainstream versus avant-garde cinema, processes of adaptation, collaborations with actors, and issues of artistic control.

For more information call 410-543-6030 or visit the SU Web site at www.salisbury.edu.