After nearly ten years in the making, the retrospective documentary about the life and work of acclaimed science fiction author Ursula K. Le Guin, fittingly named ‘The Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin’ is due to be released.  Le Guin, perhaps best known for the ‘Earthsea’ series of novels, unfortunately passed away earlier this year at the age of 88, but her presence is certainly all over the doc as she provides extensive interviews, photos and footage chronicling her lengthy career.

The documentary also includes contributions from Neil Gaiman, who asserts that ‘Harry Potter’ could never have happened without her works as well as quotes from various literary historians, fans and fellow writers.

The film follows her early days of struggling to break into the male-dominated field of science fiction, before her big break in the 1960s, after which she won multiple Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy Awards in addition to other honors.  In 1989, she was bestowed the Pilgrim Award by the Science Fiction Research Association for her “lifetime contributions to SF and fantasy scholarship”.  She was also awarded the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement at the 1995 World Fantasy Convention.  In 2001, she was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.  In 2003, she was made the 20th Grand Master of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.  And in 2010, she was awarded the Lyman Tower Sargent Distinguished Scholar Award by the North American Society for Utopian Studies.

Though her works have been adapted in various forms, her novel ‘The Telling’ is currently being adapted into a film along with the ‘Earthsea’ series.

Filmmaker Arwyn Curry has been working with Le Guin on this documentary for nine years.  In 2016, she turned to Kickstarter to gain the funding needed to complete it.  (She obtained three times her goal.)  Now that the trailer has been released, fans finally have an idea of when they can see it.  Unfortunately, it’s still a ways off.  It will air as part of PBS’ ‘American Masters’ in 2019.  Before that, however, Curry will be screening it at various festivals and will also be made available online digitally.

Source: iO9