Playlist: Hollywood Librarian

Why? Why? Librarians are f'n cool

Though you wouldn't know it from this. It's subtitled, "A Look At Librarians Through Film," but it's not. What it is is a series of random clips of librarians in movies between profiles of real life librarians. There is no connecting commentary linking the two. There is not even an attempt to juxtapose the film images to the interviews and docu-segments.There is plenty of back-patting and mythologizing about the profession. And by plenty, I mean the whole thing.

What it is is a documentary about librarians. Which would be fine, which would be great, which would be something I wouldn't have fast forwarded through if it weren't so dull. So stereotypically dull. It's not exactly the jazziest subject (though, surprisingly, Ken Burns showed us that neither is jazz). However, that's where filmmaking comes in. Good documentaries are every bit a film as something with Cate Blanchett riding a horse. There's more to it than turning on the camera and asking people to talk.