Atwood, Margaret

Canadian author Margaret Atwood has achieved distinction internationally as both a poet and a novelist. She is the author of more than 50 volumes of poetry, children’s literature, fiction, and nonfiction and is perhaps best known for her novels The Edible Woman, The Handmaid’s Tale, The Robber Bride, and The Blind Assassin. Despite the fact that her work has been published in more than 40 languages, Atwood remains one of Canada’s most elusive literary figures. Filmed on Atwood’s island retreat, this classic program—an extended version of the documentary Atwood and Family—follows director Michael Rubbo as he seeks to discover what shapes this celebrated writer’s fiction and what motivates her characters. He finds instead that for Margaret Atwood, an enigmatic distance separates the life of her art from the art of her life. (57 minutes)