California Typewriter

In Person

  • Steve Wasserman is publisher and executive director of Heyday Books.

  • Jeremy Mayer is an artist who makes sculptures from disassembled typewriters.

  • Herbert Permillion III is the owner of California Typewriter in Berkeley.

  • Ken Alexander is a typewriter repairman at California Typewriter.

“Those who haven’t adjusted ecstatically to all the wonders of modern technology will revel in the unorthodox and delightful documentary California Typewriter” (Stephen Farber, Hollywood Reporter). A portrait of artists, writers, and collectors who remain steadfastly loyal to the typewriter as tool and muse, and a meditation on the changing dynamic between humans and machines, the film takes its title from one of the country’s last typewriter repair shops, right here in Berkeley. Interviews with Tom Hanks, Sam Shepard, David McCullough, and others fill out a film that Don DeLillo called “pure typewriter heaven.” Note: After seventy years of operation, California Typewriter on San Pablo Avenue in Berkeley closed its doors on March 31, 2020.

FILM DETAILS 
Cinematographer
  • Doug Nichol
Print Info
  • Color
  • Digital
  • 103 mins
Source
  • Doug Nichol