An Ursula K. Le Guin Documentary That Was a Decade in the Making Finally Got Its World Premiere

And according to early reviews, it was worth the wait.

Courtesy of Worlds of Ursula K Le Guin
By Shannon Gormley

A new documentary about late Portland author Ursula Le Guin premiered yesterday at the UK's Sheffield Doc/Fest to raves.

Directed by Arwen Curry, Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin took 10 years to make. According to one of the film's first reviews, published by Vice, "the wait was well worth it."

Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin traces her career from struggling to get published to becoming a science fiction and feminist icon with novels like The Farthest Shore and her Earthsea series.

Related: Pioneering Portland Author Ursula Le Guin Has Died

"When I started writing, the basic assumption about fiction was that men were at the center of it," Le Guin says in an interview in the movie, according to an article in The Guardian. "I don't know how many times I was told I write well, but, 'we don't know quite what you're doing.'"

The documentary is the first feature-length film directed by Curry, who is based in San Francisco. In the decade leading up to her death earlier this year, Curry worked closely with Le Guin. Curry conducted dozens of interviews with the notoriously camera-shy author, her family and authors like Neil Gaiman and Margaret Atwood, whom Le Guin influenced. The film was in the editing stage when Le Guin died in her home in January at the age of 88.

Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin does not yet have plans for U.S. screenings, but will  broadcast on PBS's American Masters series sometime next year.

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