Since I've read little of Joan Didion's writings, and didn't particularly care for what I read, I was hesitant to view this documentary. I gave it a try, though, and was intrigued by it from start to finish. This film was made four years before she died, and there are a lot of interviews with her filmed in 2017, as well as interviews filmed earlier in her lifetime.
When she was 22, she won a "Vogue" writing contest, her mother suggested she enter years earlier, and that started off a writing career that lasted 65 years. She wrote about her own life, American society, war in El Salvador, the Central Park Five, life in California in the 1960s, etc. There were ups and downs on how she viewed life, as well as ups and downs in her marriage to writer John Gregory Dunne, brother of writer Dominick Dunne.
She and John Dunne adopted a daughter Quintana Roo Dunne in 1966, and her death, shortly after her father's death in 2003, is also covered in this documentary. Joan Didion's whole life appears to be covered in this film, which was directed by her nephew actor Griffin Dunne. Even if you are not a fan of the writer, or don't care for her writings, this is still a documentary worth watching if you like biographies.
When she was 22, she won a "Vogue" writing contest, her mother suggested she enter years earlier, and that started off a writing career that lasted 65 years. She wrote about her own life, American society, war in El Salvador, the Central Park Five, life in California in the 1960s, etc. There were ups and downs on how she viewed life, as well as ups and downs in her marriage to writer John Gregory Dunne, brother of writer Dominick Dunne.
She and John Dunne adopted a daughter Quintana Roo Dunne in 1966, and her death, shortly after her father's death in 2003, is also covered in this documentary. Joan Didion's whole life appears to be covered in this film, which was directed by her nephew actor Griffin Dunne. Even if you are not a fan of the writer, or don't care for her writings, this is still a documentary worth watching if you like biographies.