From the Series
Part of the event
Susan Sontag was a writer whose prolific output created controversy and garnered admirers in equal measure: one in the latter camp labelled her “the most intelligent woman in America”.
“Regarding Susan Sontag” illustrates Sontag’s life through images, archived materials and accounts from family, friends and colleagues. The words literary, political, feminist, cultural critic, author, playwright, essayist, bi-sexual, thinker, traveller and human rights activist have all been used accurately to describe the woman whose insatiable interest in the world and the need to write about it resulted in a multifaceted career.
“When I turned 40, I was in China. When I turned 50, I was in France. When I turned 60, I was in Sarajevo and the bombs were falling,” she says. “I guess I go to war because I think it’s my duty to be in as much contact with reality as I can be and war is a tremendous reality in our world.”
Hollywood actor Patricia Clarkson narrates the documentary. She speaks what was perhaps the defining mantra of Sontag’s life: “What I love, what draws me very much to writing is it’s a way of paying attention to the world. You’re just an instrument for tuning into as much reality as you can.”
