External links
 | This article related to a made-for-TV documentary film is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
| Paperback Dreams | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Alex Beckstead |
| Starring | Kepler's Books Cody's Books |
| Theme music composer | Nathan Grover |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Producer | Alex Beckstead [1] |
| Editor | Gail Huddleson |
| Original release | |
| Release | October 18, 2008 |
Paperback Dreams is a 2008 television documentary film about the fate of bookstores in the new economy, that was part of the KQED (San Francisco's PBS station) documentary film series, Truly CA. [2] It is "the story of two landmark independent bookstores and their struggle to survive. The film follows Andy Ross, owner of Cody's Books, and Clark Kepler, owner of Kepler's Books, over the course of two tumultuous years in the book business." [3]
Publishers Weekly notes that Beckstead became interested in the topic after becoming a "fan" of Cody's and Kepler's. [4] While working in Menlo Park, California, he frequently shopped at Kepler's. Beckstead stated: "When I heard Kepler's was closing [briefly in 2005], I was shocked: it's in one of the most affluent, educated cities in America—just 15 minutes from Stanford University—and it made me realize that if an independent bookstore couldn't survive there, there must be a larger story." [4] After making the documentary, Beckstead stated that he discovered "four elements essential to the survival of an independent bookstore: Own your own building [...] Hire experienced staff [...] Sell used books [...] Figure out some way to sell books online." [4]
Paperback Dreams aired on PBS stations beginning in November 2008. It was previously screened at Book Expo America on May 31, 2008. [5] and at the Oakland Museum of California (presented jointly with the Oakland Film Office) on August 1, 2008. [6]
| | This article related to a made-for-TV documentary film is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
City Lights is an independent bookstore-publisher combination in San Francisco, California, that specializes in world literature, the arts, and progressive politics. It also houses the nonprofit City Lights Foundation, which publishes selected titles related to San Francisco culture. It was founded in 1953 by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Peter D. Martin. Both the store and the publishers became widely known following the obscenity trial of Ferlinghetti for publishing Allen Ginsberg's influential collection Howl and Other Poems. Nancy Peters started working there in 1971 and retired as executive director in 2007. In 2001, City Lights was made an official historic landmark. City Lights is located at 261 Columbus Avenue. While formally located in Chinatown, it self-identifies as part of immediately adjacent North Beach.
KQED is a PBS member television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area. The station is owned by KQED Inc., alongside fellow PBS station KQEH and NPR member KQED-FM (88.5). The three stations share studios on Mariposa Street in San Francisco's Mission District and transmitter facilities at Sutro Tower.
IndieBound is a marketing movement for independent bookstores launched in 2008 by the American Booksellers Association. With resources targeted for "indie" booksellers, it promotes fiscal localism. IndieBound's curated reading lists include the Indie Next List and the Indie Bestseller List.
An independent bookstore is a retail bookstore which is independently owned. Usually, independent stores consist of only a single actual store. They may be structured as sole proprietorships, closely held corporations or partnerships, cooperatives, or nonprofits. Independent stores can be contrasted with chain bookstores, which have many locations and are owned by large corporations, which often have other divisions besides bookselling.
Printers Inc. Bookstore (1978–2001) was an independent bookstore in Palo Alto and Mountain View, California, that closed in 2001. Printers Inc is referenced in sonnets 8.13-8.16 of Vikram Seth's 1986 novel, The Golden Gate.
Benjamin Fong-Torres is an American rock journalist best known for his association with Rolling Stone magazine and the San Francisco Chronicle.
Kepler's Books and Magazines is an independent bookstore in Menlo Park, California. It was founded on May 14, 1955 by Roy Kepler. He previously had worked as a staff member of radio station KPFA, listener-supported and based in Berkeley. The bookstore "soon blossomed into a cultural epicenter and attracted loyal customers from the students and faculty of Stanford University and from other members of the surrounding communities who were interested in serious books and ideas."
Stephen Henderson Talbot is a TV documentary producer, reporter and writer. Talbot directed and produced "The Movement and the 'Madman' " for the PBS series American Experience in 2023. He is a longtime contributor to the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and worked for over 16 years for the series Frontline.
James Dalessandro is an American writer and filmmaker. He is best known for his historical-fiction novel 1906 based on events surrounding the great San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906.
Judy Irving is an American filmmaker. She directed the documentary The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, about writer Mark Bittner's relationship with a flock of wild parrots. The film won the Genesis Award for "Outstanding Documentary Film" in 2005, and is one of the 25 top-grossing theatrical documentaries of all time with over $3 million in box-office receipts. On May 29, 2007, Parrots was featured on the PBS series Independent Lens.
Cody's Books (1956–2008) was an independent bookstore based in Berkeley, California. It "was a pioneer in bookselling, bringing the paperback revolution to Berkeley, fighting censorship, and providing a safe harbor from tear gas directed at anti-Vietnam War protesters throughout the 1960s and 1970s."
Berkeley in the Sixties is a 1990 documentary film by Mark Kitchell.
Alex Beckstead is a documentary filmmaker based in San Francisco.
BAVC Media, previously known as the Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC), is a nonprofit organization that works to connect independent producers and underrepresented communities to emerging media technologies. It was founded in 1976 in San Francisco.
The Indies Choice Book Award is an American literary award that was inaugurated at BookExpo America 2000. The American Booksellers Association (ABA) rededicated the award in recognition of a new era in bookselling, as well as the important role the Book Sense Picks List has played for independent booksellers in discovering and spreading the word about books of quality to all stores, and readers, nationwide. Throughout the year, Book Sense independent booksellers from across the country nominate for inclusion in the monthly Book Sense Picks the books that they most enjoyed hand-selling to their customers. The books on each list represent a combined national and local staff pick selection of booksellers' favorites from more than 1,200 independent bookstores with Book Sense.
The Rejected is a made-for-television documentary film about homosexuality, produced for KQED in San Francisco by John W. Reavis. Notable as the first documentary program on homosexuality broadcast on American television, KQED first aired the film on September 11, 1961. Later syndicated to National Educational Television (NET) stations across the United States, it received positive critical reviews.
Indies Under Fire: The Battle for the American Bookstore (2006) is an American documentary film which chronicles the difficulties faced by independent bookstores in the information economy. The Palo Alto based Printers Inc. Bookstore which closed in 2001 is the primary focus of the film. It also explores the impact of Borders moving into two small towns filled with independent bookstores: Capitola, California and Santa Cruz, California.
Marcus Books, was founded in 1960, and is the oldest bookstore that specializes in African-American literature, history, and culture in the United States. For many years, it has been located in the Western Addition neighborhood of San Francisco, with a second location in Oakland, California. The store has remained independent and family-owned since its founding, and it is considered a community space for African-American and literary culture in the San Francisco Bay Area.