Films about your favourite authors

Bestselling authors are often inspired by their interesting lives, however just because one enjoys reading doesn't mean one can get through non-fiction books on authors. For those who would love to learn more about their favourite authors without the research, here are some documentaries and biopics to watch.

Named after one of her best-known novels, this documentary is featured on the great Amercian author Sylvia Plath. She battled depression and the documentary explores the autobiographical nature of the book 'The Bell Jar'. The film contains the testimonies of her friends and her daughter.
Photo: BBC

'Manto' is a biographical drama film, not a documentary, but it is a great look into the life of the great writer. Saadat Hasan Manto was an esteemed writer, playwright and screenwriter from Pakistan while it was still British India. He wrote extensively, mostly in Urdu. He wrote about the hard truths life and of his time for which Manto had to suffer court cases and turned bankrupt. His phenomenal work is read and respected even today.
Photo: HP Studios, Filmstoc, and Viacom 18 Motion Pictures

Jane Austen is the author of 'Pride and Prejudice', 'Sense and Sensibility', and several other novels about love and society that have stood the test of time. Her books are widely read today and with her wit and cheer, one would hope she had the happy ending that is shown in her books. This documentary is a dramatised but accurate look into her life.
Photo:BBC

Ursula K. Le Guin was one of the first women to write science fiction and fantasy and her books, 'A Wizard of Earthsea' and 'The Left Hand of Darkness' are classics in the genres. She wrote several award-winning books, short stories and poems throughout her life and this documentary captures her life and her struggles as a feminist author in a male-dominated field. The film contains footage of her interviews and footage of other famous authors like Margaret Atwood, Neil Gaiman, David Mitchell, Michael Chabon speaking on her.
Photo: ursulakleguin.com

Henry Charles Bukowski is a well-known poet and author who captures the struggles of low-income Americans in his works. He is also well known for his column Notes of a Dirty Old Man in an underground newspaper. This documentary on him released in 1987 and is considered a classic. It is four hours long and it contains 52 short interviews with him so one can watch it across days.
Photo: Wikipedia

Margaret Atwood, the well-known author of 'The Handmaid's Tale' (amongst other notable works) herself features in this documentary by Michael Rubbo. Michael Rubbo is a famous documentary director with a trademark style which he applies to this documentary as well. He questions Attwood, attempting to find her autobiographical influences and their exchange is interesting.
Photo: National Film Board of Canada

This short documentary fully captures the life of Rudyard Kipling. The author of 'The Jungle Book' is well read in India where he was born, and internationally. He was honoured with the Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 42, and was the youngest recipient to date. Kipling lived a lot of his life in India, where he was inspired to write. This film highlights how the loss of his son, John, affected him.
Photo: Wikipedia

An episode of the Greatest Journeys series, this episode cleverly explores how the Charles Dickens era was monumental for shaping modern England and how that reflects in Dickens writing. His characters and stories are often used to examine the period and this documentary helps us explore his England.
Photo: Janson Media

This film is about the 20-year friendship between writer Ernest Hemingway and the actor Gary Cooper. Author of 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' and 'The Old Man and the Sea', Hemingway barely needs an introduction. He lived an interesting life but this film focusses on his friendship with the actor Gary Cooper, an actor from the days of silent movies. It contains interviews with Jim Harrison, Kirk Douglas, Patricia Neal, and several more.
Photo: http://cooperhemingway.com

'Dreams with Sharp Teeth' is a 2008 biographical documentary about author Harlan Ellison. He is a well-known author of many works, having written hundreds of short stories, novellas, screenplays, comic book scripts, teleplays, essays and several journalistic pieces. He won several awards for work including 8 Hugo Awards, 2 special awards from annual World SF Conventions, 4 Nebula Awards of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and 5 Bram Stoker Awards. Though he had a successful career, he was also involved in several controversies as he was rather argumentative and the documentary on his is bound to be interesting. It contains clips of Harlan Ellison and talking head segments from colleagues and fans like Robin Williams and Neil Gaiman. The film was made in 2008, 10 years before he died.
Photo: Creative Differences, Alpha Dogs

'Salinger' is a documentary about the American Author J. D. Salinger, written and directed by Shane Salerno. Salinger is best known for 'The Catcher in the Rye', a classing coming of age novel. He led a very private life but now many details of his life are out and they have been wonderfully captured in this documentary. This documentary released in 2015, 5 years after his death.
Photo: The Weinstein Company