About Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World
Celebrated best-selling poet, Pulitzer Prize-winner, lover of dogs and long walks in the woods, openly queer but intensely private, Mary Oliver was America’s unlikely contemporary mystic, stalking the ponds and forests of Cape Cod for nearly 50 years in order to open herself—and her readers—to the known and unknowable world. From a lonely childhood to literary fame, Oliver’s life was shaped by devotion to nature, paying attention, and the long journey toward learning to love and to be loved. Her poems inspire liberals and conservatives, atheists and believers, naturalists and urbanites, speaking directly to contemporary anxieties about attention, presence, and the human relationship with the natural world—issues that feel especially pressing in an era of climate crisis, digital distraction, and social fragmentation. [91 min; documentary; English]
"Oliver’s ability to summon emotions with words is uncanny. Waters’ documentary is proof." — Matt Zoller Seitz, RogerEbert.com
"In an era when arts and humanities are on the back foot, Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World shows the power of literature and nature to save our souls, one grasshopper, one great love, one poem at a time." — Thelma Adams, AARP Movies for Grownups
"Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World gives viewers a very clear and generous opportunity: to discover her poems for themselves—perhaps the poem they need." — Jefferson Everest Crawford, In Review Online
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