A new documentary from an Iowa-connected director provides an intimate look at the life of the late poet Mary Oliver.
In 2007, Oliver was declared the best-selling poet in the United States by the New York Times. Her writing on the beauty and wonder of the natural world touched millions of readers. But she was also reserved in sharing her personal life and was at times regarded as a hermit.
The new documentary, Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World, takes viewers into Oliver’s world through interviews with her friends and personal photos, including of her partner Molly Malone Cook and their many dogs.
The director, Sasha Waters, spent 12 years at the University of Iowa as a professor in the cinema department, and her production company’s name, Pieshake Pictures, is a nod the Iowa City diner, Hamburg Inn #2. Celebrities including Stephen Colbert, Oprah Winfrey and Lucy Dacus, as well as UI professor and poet, Donika Kelly, were interviewed in the film about Oliver’s cultural impact.
FilmScene screened the documentary earlier this month in Iowa City, and it will air on PBS as part of American Masters on Aug. 25.
Oliver and Cook spent almost 40 years in Provincetown, and the life the couple built in the Massachusetts beach town is central to the film.
“She really is a person who is quite devoted to routine, to her personal space, her privacy, her life. She's amazing because she can always find something new to write about,” said Waters. “She's walking in the same woods every day for years and years and years, but she always has this sense of discovery in the work.”
Oliver wrote for many years before receiving critical acclaim, and the documentary follows her ascent from a struggling artist to the winner of the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize.
“I think her belief in herself and in the value of her own voice is just an incredible model for anyone who's creative, but especially for kind of aspiring young creatives,” Waters said.
To hear this conversation, listen to Talk of Iowa, hosted by Charity Nebbe. Samantha McIntosh produced this episode.
