Mill Valley Native James Kennard's Directorial Debut Airs on PBS

The Book Makers takes audiences from the intimate studio space of book artists to the vast digital library of the Internet Archive to discover what books are and can be in modern times and why they are more important than ever. The film is Mill Valley native James Kennard’s feature directorial debut. He is the second generation of Kennards at InCa Productions in Mill Valley, taking over the lead from his Emmy, BAFTA, and multiple other award-winning father David Kennard, who started the company three decades ago.

The Book Makers debuts nationwide on PBS stations, the WORLD channel, and PBS.org (free streaming) during October's National Book Month. Locally, it airs on KQED on Tuesday, October 27 at 4 pm on KQED WORLD and Friday, November 13 at 8 pm on the main channel. The film is produced by InCA Productions (A Year in… series) in partnership with Petaluma Projects (Won’t You Be My Neighbor?) and is distributed by American Public Television. Prior to the PBS airings, the film was featured at (virtual) film festivals including the Mill Valley Film Festival and Doclands, San Francisco DocFest, the Port Townsend Film Festival, the Woods Hole Film Festival, and Doctober in Bellingham, Washington.

This engaging one-hour documentary taps into the tangible connection humans have to physical books, introducing artists, authors, collectors, and historians who are reinventing the artistry and craft of bookmaking to coexist in harmony with a digital world, with a majority of participants based in the Bay Area.

San Francisco-based authors Dave Eggers (McSweeney’s) and Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket (A Series of Unfortunate Events) make the case for why books are still essential in our screen-obsessed society. Berkeley-based fine press printer Peter Koch discusses what inspired him to craft a 30-pound book made entirely of lead. Berkeley artist Julie Chen re-invents the physical form of the book to enhance the reader’s tactile experience and teaches the next generation about the possibilities inherent in books. Children’s author and illustrator Christian Robinson underscores the importance of representation in the stories he depicts. Mark Sarigianis sets out to print a limited run of Charles Bukowski’s novel Ham on Rye on his own in Oakland using the traditional metal type process that leaves no room for error. Artist Karen Bleitz (formerly of the Bay Area, now based in London) employs novel mechanisms to surprise her readers and communicate linguistic and scientific ideas. Typographic artist Sam Winston upends traditional linear narratives with his visually striking books using digital ideas on the physical page. The film travels to New York, California, London, and Germany to discover their stories and more, including the Book Arts program at Mills College in Oakland, culminating at the CODEX Book Fair in San Francisco, the most important event in the book arts world, where artists and book lovers from around the world gather and prove, as the Library of Congress’s Mark Dimunation declares while attending, “the physical book is alive and well, thank you very much.”

For more information and all local airdates, visit https://www.thebookmakersfilm.com/

About Petaluma Projects

Nion McEvoy and Leslie Berriman, individually and as Petaluma Projects, have produced and helped fund numerous documentary films, including California Typewriter, Obit, The Great Hack, and Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

About InCA Productions

Based in San Francisco and Nairobi (Kenya), InCA has been creating award-winning national and international documentaries since 1985. These include The Heart of Healing, Things to Come, Africa’s Children, Amelia Earhart: The Final Hours, 2001: HAL’s Legacy, Keeping Score, and the wine trilogy, A Year in Burgundy/Champagne/Port. For more information, please visit incafilms.com.

About American Public Television

American Public Television (APT) is the leading syndicator of high-quality, top-rated programming to the nation’s public television stations. Founded in 1961, APT distributes 250 new program titles per year and more than one-third of the top 100 highest-rated public television titles in the U.S. APT’s diverse catalog includes prominent documentaries, performance, news and current affairs programs, dramas, how-to programs, children’s series and classic movies. America’s Test Kitchen From Cook’s Illustrated, Cook’s Country, AfroPoP, Rick Steves’ Europe, Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Television, Front and Center, Doc Martin, Midsomer Murders, Lidia’s Kitchen, Kevin Belton’s New Orleans Kitchen, Simply Ming, The Best of the Joy of Painting with Bob Ross, and P. Allen Smith’s Garden Home are a sampling of APT’s programs, considered some of the most popular on public television. APT also licenses programs internationally through its APT Worldwide service and distributes Create®TV — featuring the best of public television's lifestyle programming — and WORLD™, public television’s premier news, science and documentary channel. To find out more about APT’s programs and services, visit APTonline.org.