"California Typewriter" is part of the festival’s new “DOCtoberFest” series, which will feature six award-winning documentaries premiering over seven days.
“California Typewriter” is a documentary portrait of artists, writers, and collectors who remain steadfastly loyal to the typewriter as a tool and muse, featuring Tom Hanks, John Mayer, David McCullough, Sam Shepard, and others.
In this magnificent filmic essay, director Doug Nichol explores the mythology attached to the typewriter, as cultural historians, collectors and various obsessives celebrate the physicality of the typewriter both as object and means of summoning the creative spirit.
It also movingly documents the struggles of California Typewriter, one of the last standing repair shops in America dedicated to keeping the aging machines clicking.
In the process, the film delivers a thought-provoking meditation on the changing dynamic between humans and machines, and encourages us to consider our own relationship with technology, old and new, as the digital age’s emphasis on speed and convenience redefines who’s serving whom, human or machine?
“A loving Valentine to all the iconoclasts who resist what the rest of the world defines as progress.” — Stephen Farber, The Hollywood Reporter
“A rich, thoughtful, meticulously crafted tapestry …. Oscar viewers keep this one in your sights.” — Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times
“An ingenious meditation on what the digital era is doing to us.” — Owen Gleiberman, Variety