Ayn Rand Film Biography Nominated for Academy Award
Los Angeles -- The film biography Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life is currently in distribution across the country. Nominated for a 1997 Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary, A Sense of Life was written, directed and produced by Michael Paxton, the film is nominated in the Best Documentary Feature category. "The film is a long overdue recognition of one of the most original thinkers and writers of the twentieth century," said Paxton. "The Oscar nomination was especially appropriate because of how much Ayn Rand loved movies and the many years she worked in Hollywood."
Mr. Paxton's words were echoed by Dr. Michael Berliner, the Ayn Rand Institute's (ARI) executive director (and one of the many interviewees in the film): "She earned it. Ayn Rand lived her life as intransigently as one of her fictional heroes, and this film is true to her characters. Her life story -- and this film -- has been described as 'more compelling than fiction.' You find yourself responding to it as you do to great Romantic novels."
Ayn Rand's influence has also been attested to by the general public. A 1991 survey by the Library of Congress and the Book-of-the-Month Club found that Atlas Shrugged is second only to the Bible as the most influential book in America. Her books have sold twenty million copies, and they continue to sell at the rate of more than 300,000 copies a year.
In making this movie, Mr. Paxton's said his goal was to "give a personal and interpretive picture of this woman's genius and point of view. Not merely to present her life, but her sense of life -- her personal, emotional view of existence and man's place in it -- and to show, in the process, that her life is proof that the good is possible in this world."
Narrated by Emmy-Award-winning actress Sharon Gless, Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life blends original music by Jeff Britting with rare TV and movie clips, new interviews with friends and commentators (such as Mike Wallace), animated sequences and stock footage of historical events (such as Ayn Rand's 1947 appearance before the House Un-American Activities Committee).
The nearly 400 of Ayn Rand's personal photographs that appear in the film were made available by ARI's Ayn Rand Archives, which houses the only existing collection of the personal papers and effects from her estate. The Institute also gave the filmmakers access to her unpublished screenplays, philosophic notes and Russian memorabilia -- much of this material never before seen by the public.
Ayn Rand's first novel, We the Living, has been optioned to be produced as a major motion picture. And her later novels, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, are in various stages of development. Her play Ideal is being adapted for the screen by Michael Paxton.
The Ayn Rand Institute was established to promote Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism. Institute projects include: annual essay contests on her novels The Fountainhead and Anthem, campus clubs, an op-ed program of commentaries on current events, and a nationally syndicated talk radio show. ARI also preserves and augments Ayn Rand's estate papers, especially by conducting an oral history program on her life.
A Newsweek article (9/11/95), citing Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life as just one piece of its evidence, concluded: Ayn Rand, "she's everywhere." Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life being nominated for an Academy Award has made this even more true.
Further information about Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life and other projects is available through the Ayn Rand Institute, an educational organization established to advance the philosophy of Objectivism and its principal tenets: reason, rational egoism and laissez-faire capitalism. Contact: Scott McConnell, Director of Communications: Phone: 310-306-9232. Also, visit www.asenseoflife.com.
Design copyright Scars Publications and Design. Copyright of individual pieces remain with the author. All rights reserved. No material may be reprinted without express permission from the author.
