Today, I am wrapping up my “Summer of Nostalgia” blog tour… next week is my 5th blog anniversary and GIVEAWAY!
The final entry in revisiting past favorites on this blog is a post from May 2016, “‘Spotlight’-ing a news library,” in which I analyze the 2015 Best Picture Oscar winner, Spotlight, which highlights investigative journalists researching decades of sexual abuse and cover-ups in the Catholic church.
I’ll pause if you’d like to skim or browse the original post… 😉
Why this post?
The best part about this post was discovering more about the real-life Boston Globe news librarian, Lisa Tuite, as well as reading interviews and articles about how vital she and her staff’s “research forensics” were to the investigation. (I have those interviews and articles linked in the original post.)
I love it when films provide opportunities to uncover more info and meaning behind-the-scenes. I’m never afraid to go off on tangents — they often pay off with more interesting discoveries, not to mention more interesting posts.
Plus, this film features the power of keywords!
And as a librarian, I gotta love a film that treats research — “Get those directories upstairs!” — as pivotal and key scenes.
New thoughts?
It’s such a pleasure — and a rarity! — to not only watch a good film that features a librarian in it, but to also watch a film that includes a good (and realistic) portrayal of a reel librarian. The two do NOT go hand in hand. See also 1957’s Desk Set and 1983’s Something Wicked This Way Comes as additional examples of this rare combination.
For good films that includes not-so-good (or not-so-flattering) portrayals of reel librarians, see the 1946 classic film, It’s a Wonderful Life, and 1984’s Ghostbusters, among others.
I’ll be back next week to celebrate my 5th blog anniversary and GIVEAWAY!
Sources used:
- Snoek-Brown, Jennifer. “‘Spotlight’-ing a news library.” Reel Librarians, 4 May 2016.
- Spotlight. Dir. Tom McCarthy. Perf. Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber. First Look, 2015.
REEL LIBRARIANS 